This was the first Catholic church in Evergreen Park. What a mixture of emotions worshippers felt in the little portable structure that first served their community when they heard the archbishop had established it as a parish.

It was Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day. With the post-war housing boom, a spacious modern church and bell tower, designed by Fox & Fox, was dedicated in 1964.

A dramatic mural made of mosaics behind the marble altar depicts a red-robed Christ before Pilate—“Ecce Homo”—“Behold the Man.” Stewardship and religious education are priorities here and a prayer service, called recently on behalf of a critically ill neighbor, drew 1,000 people.

On Dec. 8 its 1962 Moeller organ will joyously mark the parish’s 60th anniversary at a 4:30 p.m. Mass of Thanksgiving. People will stop and recall “the old days” in this parish that is “getting younger.”

Pastor: Father Richard J. Dempsey
Masses: Saturdays 4:30 p.m./ Sundays 8, 9:30, 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m
Seating capacity: 1,500
Founded: 1941
Phone: (708) 425-5354

Photo by Sandy Bertog