Chicago: St. James Festival 2023

By Fr. Richard Alejunas, SDB

(Chicago, IL – August 8) – After an absence of many years, the Salesians of Chicago reestablished the parochial feast day of St. James the Greater (July 25) in 2021 to celebrate the church’s patron as well as to encourage parish family unity of the recently reconfigured churches entrusted to one Salesian community.

The 2023 celebration on Sunday, July 23, took on added significance: since Friday, July 1, the two former parishes were united by the Archdiocese of Chicago’s "Renew My Church" program and canon law to become a new juridical person, St. John Bosco-St. James Parish.

The outdoor festival began at 8:00 a.m. CT with food sales and DJ/live music celebrating the United States, Poland, Mexico, Ecuador, the Caribbean, y mucho más! Over 20 parish adult/youth groups promoted membership in their movements as well as sold cultural delicacies to fund their ministries. Following Polish tradition, the priests were kept busy blessing vehicles on the Saint’s day!

The St. James Spanish Mass at 12:00 p.m. CT became tri-lingual (English, Polish, Spanish) to honor this diverse Catholic community. The special invited guest for the day was the Most Rev. Kevin Birmingham, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago and Episcopal Vicar of Vicariate IV and the parish. He was there to inaugurate the new parish, encourage its commitment to the New Evangelization, thank the Salesians for their 25 years of pastoral leadership in the local church, and officially install me as the first pastor of the newly established parish.

Along with the liturgical ministers the procession included several parish groups and Salesian Family members: the Altar Server Society, Caridades de Cristo Resucitado, the Evangelization Team/Adults, ADMA-SJB, ADMA-SJ, SJB Charismatic Renewal/Adults, SJ Charismatic Renewal/Adults, SJ Charismatic Renewal/Youth, Legion of Mary, Salesian Cooperators, Celula Divina Misericordia, Matrimonios con Proposito en Cristo, Lectores, Celula Asuncion de Maria, SJB Sociedad Guadalupana, Ministerio de San Mateo, ALPHA Español, Adoración Nocturna/Men, Adoración Nocturna/Women, and Esposas Cristianas.

Following his homily the Bishop asked me if I was ready to assume the office of pastor; after some playful hesitation, I said "yes." After that, the Bishop invited me to publicly make the "Profession of Faith," and I did so with the people of God in Spanish. Then the new pastor alone in English took the "Oath of Fidelity on Assuming an Office to be Exercised in the Name of the Church." The new pastor was then received by the people of God with generous applause.

Before concluding the Mass, the Bishop was invited to bless the recently installed antique stained glass windows in St. James. In 1970, when this third parish church was built, the pastor retired and never completed the church with inspirational stained glass. Fifty-plus years later, 100-year-old windows from a closed Lithuanian Catholic church in the New York area became available, and a recent bequest funded their installation in Chicago.

The ten windows represent this multicultural community’s one faith: the Lord Jesus Christ (the Good Shepherd, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, the Most Sacred Heart); Our Lady of Sorrows and the Assumption of the Mary; St. Joseph, Protector of the Universal Church; St. John the Baptist; and St. Michael the Archangel.