Parish Pride - St. Pascal Church

St. Pascal Church
3935 N. Melvina, Chicago

For this third church of St. Pascal’s, built in 1930, architects B. J. Hutton and Raymond Gregori chose a Moorish design with thick high walls, dark interior and gorgeous stained glass to honor the Spanish Franciscan patron saint of eucharistic adoration. (Fittingly the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration here each Thursday until 7 p.m.) A blue-collar parish, and the church where Cardinal George worshipped as a youth, it still has a number of second- and third-generation parishioners as well as newcomers to Portage Park. Music is provided by adult, youth, teen and handbell choirs; an usher-greeter ministry is shared by men and women, and all the ministries of the parish are preparing to begin its 90th anniversary year with a Mass at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 12. Cardinal George will be the celebrant.

A distant second to the fame of its favorite son is the St. Pascal Haunted House presented each October for the past 19 years, currently dubbed “Underworld ’04.”