A beloved statue, held inside a shuttered Pilsen church and at the heart of a fight between former parishioners and the Archdiocese of Chicago, was exposed for a few hours on Tuesday as crews prepared to move it to another church in the neighborhood.
The statue, a marble replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta, depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother, Mary, after the crucifixion. It has been in St. Adalbert Church in Pilsen for decades.
But protesters who fought to keep the church open also oppose plans to move the statue from St. Adalbert, 1650 W. 17th St., to St. Paul’s Catholic Church, 2127 W. 22nd Place.
St. Paul’s absorbed the other parish after St. Adalbert closed in 2019.
Plans to move the statue got underway at the end of August. But the statue stayed put then due to a permitting issue. A group of former parishioners have since kept a 24/7 vigil at the church to prevent the statue’s removal.
The fight to keep the statue came to a head Tuesday as contractors returned to the site and removed an 8-by-10-foot section of the church’s east exterior wall, exposing the back of the artwork.
A forklift sat in the alley, ready to pick up the statue. Police tried to clear the alley of protestors.
“I’m gonna get arrested over this,” said Judy Vazquez, one of the protest leaders. Vazquez, 65, came prepared, with her lawyer’s number written in marker on her forearm.
Around 20 protestors faced an equal number of police outside the church. They prayed in English, Spanish and Polish.
Though heavily Latino today, the West Side neighborhood was once a destination for Polish immigrants, a legacy that lives on in a group that prays outside the church in Polish and that had attended the Polish-language masses once held there.
“This was built by Polish immigrants,” said Anina Jakubowki, who grew up on 18th Street and attended Mass at the church.
Built by Polish immigrants in 1914, ownership of the church was eventually transferred to the archdiocese. Jakubowski said the statue and the church ought to remain because of its significance for Polish immigrants.
“They didn’t leave Europe with bags of money. What they did bring with them was their deep faith in God,” Jakubowski said.
Vazquez and the others argued if the Pieta must be removed, it should go to another Polish church. “That would at least be some recompense,” said Ana Leja, another leader of the group and originally from Krakow, Poland.
The archdiocese said where the statue goes is up to St. Paul’s.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez joined protesters outside on Tuesday to demand that the archdiocese meet with parishioners to find a solution.
“What they’re doing is really sad. They’re stepping on parishioners,” he said.
Some fear as soon as the statue is removed, the building will be sold, spurring gentrification.
“We have a huge concern that if we let this site go it will be sold off and developed to become luxury condos,” said Ugo Okere, a local organizer at the scene.
After two dispersal orders from the police over the course of about three hours, an officer in charge of the scene called off the removal of the statute for the day, citing an order from the Department of Buildings. The department did not immediately respond to inquiries about delay early Tuesday afternoon.
The protestors sighed with relief as police left, but know the fight isn’t over.
“They will remove the Pieta no matter what,” Leja said, “unless a miracle happens — and they do happen.”
Some worried the building already had been sold. A spokesperson for the archdiocese confirmed that was not the case, but declined to say if the building was under contract or not.
As contractors covered the hole in the church wall with plywood, some protesters were elated and reinvigorated in their plan to keep watch.
“Praise God and the Virgin, we’ve won another huge victory,” Vazquez said.
Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.
