The Catholic New World: Parish Pride - St. Bede Church

Once a white frame church served farm families and vacationers in this Northwest corner of Lake County. Today’s English Gothic brick edifice designed by McCarthy, Smith & Eppig in 1941 seats 400. Permanent homes have displaced most barns and silos but the old parish cemetery remains.

The wisdom of recycling may have originated at St. Bede’s. Its chandeliers came from Chicago’s St. Columbkille, the lovely reredos (behind the altar) from St. Pat’s in McHenry, shrines from a closed church in Wilmot; altar, candle sticks and pipe organ, as well as delicate art glass windows installed in 1974, all “prior-owned.”

As they prepare to mark the parish’s 75th jubilee May 25, its mostly blue-collar mix of people maintain the founders’ spirit. A fall parish festival is a tradition here and school fund-raisers are met with enthusiasm. They say when you need something done, there’s always someone at St. Bede’s willing to roll up their sleeves and do it.