This is the story of committed black Catholics in the early 1950s who gathered petitions and volunteered their homes for prayer meetings to get a parish of their own.

They held pledge drives, sold a donated lot and hosted fundraisers until prayers to their patron of “lost causes” were answered.

Architects Belli and Belli drew up the plans, but it was the skill and sweat of its parishioners who made this the first African-American-built church in the archdiocese. In March 1959 they marched from the Lowden Homes where Mass had been celebrated, to this sacred site to lay the cornerstone.

Parishioners still boast a strong tradition of “faith, physical efforts, involvement and pride.” Their school is taught by the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the oldest religious order of black women in the country.

These 325 registered families don’t know the word “can’t,” with activities that stretch from the Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Guild to many spiritual and community service groups. Their motto: “The spirit is alive!”

Pastor: Father Frank M. Sasso
Masses: Saturdays 5 p.m./ Sundays 9 a.m. and noon
Seating capacity: 265
Phone: (773) 568-7077
Parish founded: 1956