Pilsen Parish Finds Cultural Integration Hard

By Ewa Lyczewska and Jill Jacoby

Father Jim Collins, an associate Jesuit priest at St. Procopius Parish, finds integration of two churches "hard." (Photo by Ewa Lyczewska)

“It is hard to integrate two churches … and nobody is successful at that in five years,” said Father Jim Collins, an associate Jesuit priest at St. Procopius Parish.

Located in Pilsen, a Lower West Side, Latino-dominated Chicago neighborhood, St. Procopius Parish consists of its title name church and Holy Trinity Croatian. St. Procopius Parish inherited a “dying” Holy Trinity Croatian in 2004, according to Collins.

St. Procopius Parish offers seven Sunday Masses: three at Holy Trinity Croatian and four at St. Procopius. Holy Trinity celebrates Masses in Croatian, English and Spanish while St. Procopius has three in Spanish and one in English.

St. Procopius, located at 18th & Allport, serves Pilsen's thriving Latino community. (Photo by Ewa Lyczewska)

According to Collins, most of the Spanish speakers are Mexicans; either immigrants themselves or first- or second-generation Americans.

Collins estimates half of their nearly 1200 parishioners live in their zip code. None of the Croatians live in the Pilsen. Instead, they travel from the suburbs of Chicago due to their strong association with Holy Trinity Croatian, explained Collins.

According to the official St. Procopius/Holy Trinity October Count History, an  average number of 1532 people attended Sunday Masses in October 2010. Forty parishioners attended the Croatian Mass, with 241 English and 1251 Spanish attendees.

Since 2004, the average number of parishioners at the Croatian Mass varied from 32 in 2004 to 41 in 2008, the average Mass having 37 attendees. The average number of Spanish attendees varied from 263 in 2004 to 315 in 2009, compared to the English Mass with 103 in 2004 and 245 in 2009. The average number of English attendees in the past 6 years was 263 and a 293 Spanish average.

Lincoln Park Muggings in the Summer of 2009

In the summer of 2009, several muggings occurred in Lincoln Park, a North Side Chicago neighborhood.

Chicago Police Department believes that four of these muggings are linked.

All four victims were men in their early to mid-20s and walking alone. Each of them was attacked from behind by at least four attackers. Attackers are said to be men in their 20s.

According to Chicago Police Department victims were asked for their wallets, then “savagely” beaten in the head and face. Two of the victims were hospitalized.

Police is unsure if other three attacks are related to the four. An investigation is in process. There is no information on the eight one.

Following map shows eight muggings that happened at that time. Each marker has a time, place, a short description of a crime and an additional information given by Chicago Police Department.

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LEGEND:

RED + PURPLE -> Strong-arm robberies, believed by police to be linked.

PURPLE -> Victim identified arrestee in a physical lineup.

GREEN -> Police said they are unsure if the attack is related to others.

BLUE -> Victim fought off the offenders.

Which city would you like to live in?

The Resurrection Project: Casa Maravilla, a newest example of ‘our holistic development’ in Pilsen

 

Alex Morales, a resource development project manager, talks to DePaul University students about newest “holistic developments” in Pilsen by The Resurrection Project. (Photo by Luz Garcia Cubillos)

The opening of Casa Maravilla, a senior home, is the newest example of “our holistic development” of Pilsen, said a representative of  The Resurrection Project.

Casa Maravilla is part of TRP’s work to build a healthy community rather than “move one,” said Alex Morales, a resource development project manager of TRP.

On Sept. 29, TRP opened a senior home with 73 high-quality affordable rental housing units, the “newest addition” to a “holistic development” of Pilsen, said Morales.

Casa Maravilla is located near Alivio Medical Center, enabling seniors quick and easy access to medical care. According to Morales, like a lot of other buildings built by TRP, Casa Maravilla was build with an environment-friendly technology.

“We are affordable housing, not low-income housing,” added Morales.

Morales spoke to DePaul University students on Sept. 27 about The Resurrection Project’s newest ventures. According to Morales, a project, which started with building and renting affordable housing to build a healthy community rather than “move one,” is successfully expanding in recent years into “investing” in people’s career developments.

Andrew Huff shares the story of Gapers Block with DePaul students

Andrew Huff, a co-founder of Gapers Block, talks to students at DePaul University. (Photo by Mike Reilley)

Andrew Huff, a co-founder of Chicago-centric website Gapers Block, said he is adding a business section and redesigning the blog.

Huff said reasons behind its success are: communicating with readers, writing about interesting things in Chicago and linking. 

His approach to coverage is: “If it is interesting to you it will be interesting to others.”

Andrew Huff spoke on Sept., 20 to a class of graduate students at DePaul University.  A blogger, he co-founded Gapers Block with Naz Hamid in April of 2003.

Since then, the blog has established itself in the online community, and has been listed as one of the “best city blogs” in Forbes’ Best of the Web.

After Huff noticed a niche in Chicago for a community blog, he got together with Naz Hamid, a designer whom he met through blogging.

Together thay launched Gapers Block, named after a slowdown in a traffic that occurs when there is an accident on the side of the road. From the beginning their mission, was for their readers to “slow down and check out cool things” in the city.

With 12 other bloggers,  they started to cover arts and culture, food, sports and music.

“From the beginning, we made a point of listing only things that we found interesting, the things that we would go to, ” Huff said.