Our Lady’s Triangle Renew My Church Update: December 18, 2020
Discernment Process
St. John Cantius Parish, St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish and Holy Trinity Polish Mission engaged in the Renew My Church (RMC) “Decisions and Discernment” process through the fall of 2020. The Grouping Feedback and Discernment team (GFDT), which was made up of members from each community, met to review and discern the future parish structure for the area. Our deepest appreciation goes to the GFDT who prayerfully discerned the parish grouping structure during this challenging time.
Based on their meetings and feedback gathered from the larger parish community, they
submitted feedback to the archdiocese. The Archdiocesan Standards and Recommendations
Commission, which includes representatives from across the Archdiocese of Chicago, reviewed
the feedback and other information, including financial summaries and parish trends.
Cardinal Cupich and Bishop Lombardo are grateful to Fr. Caswell, Fr. Bus, Fr. Totzke and the
Grouping Teams who gathered throughout the past few months, as well as the parishioners, the
Vicariate Team, the Presbyteral Council and RMC Commission who offered feedback through
the recent discernment process. Your perseverance was admirable, particularly during these
difficult months of the pandemic.
Outcome
In the past few weeks, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, the archdiocese’s
auxiliary bishops, and the archdiocese’s Presbyteral Council met to discuss the Commission’s
recommendation. Based upon those discussions and prayerful consideration, Cardinal Cupich
made the following decisions regarding the parish structure in Our Lady’s Triangle.
Each of the parishes / mission will remain in their current structure.
● Holy Trinity Polish Mission will continue to be served by priests of the Society of Christ.
● The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius will continue to serve St. John Cantius Parish.
● Fr. Anthony Bus will continue to serve as Pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish.
● The scenario endorsed by the Grouping Team, recommended by the Commission and
supported by Cardinal Cupich envisions that at the time in the future when Fr. Bus is no
longer able to serve as Pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, a priest of the Canons
Regular of St. John Cantius will be assigned as Pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish.
● St. John Cantius Parish and St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish will remain separate parishes
to ensure each parish’s specific charism is nurtured with particular attention.
Each of the communities is encouraged to continue working together on all ministries, with
particular attention on supporting efforts to strengthen St. Stanislaus Kostka Academy.
Next Steps
Each community will embark upon the next phase of the renewal process called “Building the
New Reality” to become a stronger, more sustainable presence for the future, capable of
reaching more people in their work of making disciples of Jesus Christ, building communities
with one another and inspiring witness in the world around us.
Updated December 17, 2020
Join us online on Friday evening, December 18, at 5:45pm, to hear the important update on the developments with Renew My Church and the three of our parishes in “Our Lady’s Triangle,” Register here: www.renewmychurch.org/announcements
We are pleased that Bishop Lombardo, our regional bishop and Cardinal Cupich’s representative to our region of the archdiocese, will be with us to give the announcement. We will begin with a short prayer service led by the pastors of the three parishes.
Updated November 10, 2020
The grouping of “Our Lady’s Triangle,” that is, St. John Cantius, St. Stanislaus Kostka, and Holy Trinity Mission are concluding their discernment and decision phase of Renew my Church.
Our parish discernment teams and the Archdiocesan team see two scenarios emerging that would be possible as far as any pastoral and structural changes.
In the near term, the scenarios do not propose a change in status, structure, nor leadership of the 3 parishes. These scenarios focus on planning for ministry and leadership into the future.
The archdiocese asked our grouping to identify ways to build upon the collaboration between St. Stanislaus and St. John Cantius and to prepare for a time Fr. Anthony Bus, CR, is no longer able to pastor St. Stanislaus Kostka.
At that point in the future, structural and leadership changes would be implemented; the following potential scenarios for these changes were offered:
Scenario 1: St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. John Cantius remain separately organized parishes, each
pastored by a priest from the Canons Regular.
Scenario 2: St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. John Cantius unite as one parish with two church sites. The combined parish is pastored by a priest from the Canons Regular.
At this time the Archdiocese does not propose any structural or leadership change for Holy Trinity Mission, because of the unique ministry to the Polish community.
The parish teams and our parishioners feedback sent in via survey heavily lean toward favoring Scenario 1. We will be continuing the discussion in the coming weeks. Our parish teams will present a proposal to the Archdiocese and by January the final decision to be approved by Cardinal Blase Cupich.
We thank our RMC Leadership team at our parish or their investment in time at meetings and many hours of work and conversation: Rosemary Hackett, Nick Chapello, Scott Anderson, Michael Erin Rios, Frank Spellman. Feel free to approach any of our RMC Leadership team with any questions or concerns.
Renew My Church is an Archdiocesan wide initiative that seeks to invigorate the local church by making disciples, building communities, and inspiring witness. Learn more at RenewMyChurch.org
Download the information page from the Archdiocese of Chicago below.
September 15th, 2020
Dear Parishioners,
Renew My Church is an Archdiocesan wide initiative that seeks to invigorate the local church by making disciples, building communities, and inspiring witness. As many of you have already heard, our parish’s engagement in Renew My Church begins in October of this year. With the updated start date, our parish has been included in a new grouping of parishes with strong historical ties— St. Stanislaus Kostka and Holy Trinity and St. John Cantius.
St. Stanislaus Kostka, founded in 1867, is our historic mother church, staffed by
the Congregation of the Resurrection, who also built our church. St. Stans’s was
saved from destruction on many occasions, has been restored to her original beauty
over the past 30 years under the direction of Fr. Anthony Buś, C.R. The parish has
been a sanctuary for perpetual adoration and devotion to the Divine Mercy.
Holy Trinity (Kościół Trójcy Świętej), founded in 1872, was set up as a mission for
the Polish Catholics, and like St. John’s and St. Stan’s, the church was saved from ruin
and has undergone major restoration and today is a vibrant parish under the direction
of Fr. Andrzej Totzke, SChr., a member of the religious community of the Society of Christ.
I see the grouping of these three parishes as providential. It consists of three churches, three religious orders with unique gifts and charisms, but dedicated to one Faith. There has been a long-time collaboration between our parishes: we have hosted prayer events, Marian processions, or participated in the seven churches on Holy Thursday. As St. Stanislaus Kostka has grown over the years, our priests have enjoyed assisting Fr. Anthony by offering Masses, hearing confessions, and any other needed ministry.
I have already met with Fr. Anthony and Fr. Andrzej, and as pastors of our parishes, we are excited to be able to take this opportunity, to assist and grow with these centers of Catholic life within walking distance of our own parish. We plan to pull together and assist one another as Renew My Church continues to lead us into a deeper discussion and discernment about how best to use our resources so as to ensure that what past generations have given us will continue to be available in its fullness and splendor in our own time.
This is a time for renewal and a deepening of the faith in our parishes. It is a time for hope, a chance to take that which might need a little attention and care, so invigorate growth and restoration. This is an opportunity for us, as a parish, to support and work with our mother and sister churches directly around us. Now is a chance to learn from them, to grow with them, to share with them, as we continue our mission to Restore the Sacred and bring the faithful to God.
Please continue to pray for our parish as well as St. Stanislaus Kostka and Holy Trinity throughout this process. We look forward to working together and expanding the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, in our neighborhoods and our city
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Joshua Caswell, SJC
Download a copy of this letter here:
Interior of Holy Trinity Mission
Interior of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church