'God is telling me we should start a soup kitchen'

The origins of the Soup Kitchen at St. Thomas of Canterbury are murky enough that a flier for the 10th anniversary featured “To Tell the Truth: Who Started the Soup Kitchen?” as part of its entertainment.

But whatever the specifics, most agree that Terry Gates, who lived at the St. Francis Catholic Worker House in Uptown in 1978, was the one who first had the idea.

The Catholic Worker Movement was founded by Servant of God Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, designed to facilitate direct practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy by sharing the lives of the poor, most notably in houses of hospitality that provided shelter for those in need.

Terry had originally come to the house in Uptown as a guest after a car accident and family estrangement, and in the words of Jim Eder, who was also living at the Catholic Worker house at the time, “she became our poster girl, as she healed physically, spiritually, mentally.” She approached Jim with the idea for the soup kitchen first, arguing that it was in the tradition of soup lines begun by Catholic Workers during the Great Depression.

He pointed out that the house already had about 20 guests to its five members, who could “barely keep [the house] open.”

“She said, ‘No, Jim, you don't understand, God is telling me we should start a soup kitchen,’” Jim recounted. “So in my great love for the poor and my kindly spirit and my wonderful nature and my generous spirit, I said, ‘Well, you and God are going to have to do it, because it's a dumb idea, and it'll never work. And you can't do it.’ And then she said, ‘Well, I'm going to go down and ask Fr. Rochford if we can use the [St. Thomas of Canterbury] church basement.’ And I said, ‘Good!’ because I figured: Oh, the priest'll kill this.”

Fr. Rochford, who was pastor at St. Thomas of Canterbury a couple blocks north of the Catholic Worker House, did the opposite; he opened the basement for operations.

God’s providence, like His grace, knows no boundaries and always manages to surprise us in the varied ways in which it is manifested. The way churches in Chicago were conceived and created is no exception. There are churches organized along ethnic lines and proximity to factories and stockyards. There were also churches built to reflect the homeland of the community and the wealth they were blessed with in the New World. However, St. Thomas of Canterbury in the heart of Uptown is the only church in Chicago history to have originated in a snowstorm.

A severe blizzard in the winter of 1916 kept numerous Catholics in the Wilson Avenue District (soon to be known as “Uptown”) from reaching either St. Ita in Edgewater or Our Lady of Lourdes in Ravenswood. A compromise in the form of a new church halfway between the two was proposed to the new Archbishop of Chicago, George W. Mundelein. Find 500 families who could be potential parishioners, His Excellency said, and you have your church. In less than a week the requisite number of families had been found, and St. Thomas of Canterbury Church became a reality.

It was fitting that St. Thomas of Canterbury began as a response to the spiritual and practical needs of the community. That is a spirit of spiritual care and communal outreach to a wide and diverse group of people that continues to this day.

In 1942, Monsignor Michael Klasen, the founding pastor of St. Gregory the Great, published the following monograph or booklet, which he entitled, “The Church Beautiful,” for the people of St. Gregory’s, sketching out the history of our beautiful church and detailing its appointments.  We believe that both long-time parishioners, as well as newcomers, will find the booklet interesting and helpful in discerning the intricate meanings of the art and architecture of our singularly beautiful church.
 
In recent years St. Gregory’s has pursued a mission called ‘Evangelization through the Arts.”  We seek to articulate the gospel of Christ in languages beyond words. This effort was first inspired by our awareness of the sublime gift that we have been given in our ‘inheritance’ of  “The Church Beautiful.”  In addition to truth and goodness, beauty has long been deemed one of the favored pathways to God. The beauty of our church is validation of this ancient insight. Where else, in our neighborhood or city, can one find a church where beauty is harnessed to such a noble purpose in expressing the truths of Christ’s gospel? Our ‘Artist in Residence Program’ and our perennial efforts to celebrate the beauties of the Church’s liturgical life with dignity and grace further elaborate our strategy of ‘evangelizing through the arts.’
 
In the text that follows, Monsignor Klasen lovingly expresses the meaning of virtually all of the artistic and architectural details of our church.  Due to the sheer volume of these details, this is a text that is meant to be savored and absorbed across the course of many readings.  In a number of places, we have added brief explanations of words or phrases that have been modified in church-life since the brochure was first published.  Most of these changes were the result of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1961-1965.)  Explanations that have been added are printed in italics and within parentheses.
 
Please enjoy this treasure from our parish history.  May God, who has begun the good work in us, bring it to fulfillment.
 
                                                                        Gaudete Sunday, Third Sunday of Advent,
                                                                        December 13, 2009

06/25/1900 Father Crowe is appointed to establish a new congregation in Edgewater. St. Ita Parish is founded.
07/01/1900 Father Crowe celebrates the First Mass for the parish of St. Ita in the old Guild Hall.
12/25/1900 The first Mass is celebrated in the frame building of St. Ita Church.
06/09/1901 The frame Church is dedicated by Archbishop Feehan.
09/12/1901 Father Crowe moves into the frame rectory which had been built at 1220 W. Catalpa.
09/06/1904 St. Ita School opens in the basement of the Church.
04/02/1906 Ground at 5519 N. Magnolia is broken for a new school.
01/01/1909 The Sisters of Mercy, who staff the school, move into new convent next to the school building.
09/1909        All three stories of the brick school building are completed.
04/07/1924 Ground is broken for the Church of St. Ita. Architect Henry J. Schlacks's French Gothic masterpiece.
09/14/1924 The cornerstone for the new Church is laid after the old frame Church is razed.
04/17/1927 The first Mass is celebrated in the present Church.
10/09/1927 St. Ita Church is dedicated by George Cardinal Mundelein.
09/02/1930 Monsignor C.J. Quille is named pastor of St. Ita Parish.
05/02/1942 Father Gerard C. Picard is named pastor of St. Ita.
11/18/1951 Samuel Cardinal Stritch presides at the Golden Jubilee of the construction of the first Church of St. Ita Parish.
05/1968       Father Raymond J. Morrison is named pastor of St. Ita Parish.
09/21/1969 The 50th Anniversary of Monsignor Picard's Ordination is celebrated in the new Jubilee Hall.
10/12/1975 A Mass of Thanksgiving is celebrated to mark the 75th Anniversary of St. Ita Parish.
02/11/1976 Father Richard J. Feller is appointed pastor of St. Ita Parish.
09/01/1988 Father Laurence F. Maddock is appointed pastor of St. Ita Parish.
10/13/1990 St. Ita Parish celebrates its 90th Anniversary.
01/15/2000 The Centennial Year for St. Ita Parish begins with the celebration of the Feast of Saint Ita.
11/19/2000 Francis Cardinal George presides at the Centennial Mass. The new altar is dedicated and the Church is rededicated.
06/2001       Father Steven W. Patte is appointed pastor of St. Ita Parish.
02/2006       Father David P. Pavlik is appointed pastor of St. Ita Parish. 
07/2012       Father JoAndre B. Beltran is appointed pastor of St. Ita Parish.
07/2016       Archdiocese entrusts parish to Conventual Franciscan Friars. Father Bob Cook, OFM Conv., is appointed first  Franciscan pastor of Saint Ita Parish.
05/31/2019 St. Ita and St. Thomas of Canterbury merge and become Ss. Ita and Thomas of Canterbury Parish on the Feast of the Visitation.
09/03/2020 St. Gregory the Great is added to the parish, which is renamed Mary Mother of God, on the Feast of St. Gregory the Great.