St. Simon of Cyrene - Our Sharing Parish

 

 

In the late 1980's, Fr. Dominic Grassi of St. Josaphat and Fr. Mike Ivers of St. Agatha created a sharing parish relationship between St. Josaphat and St. Agatha. Since 2007, Fr. Larry Dowling has been pastor at St. Agatha. At the celebration Mass of St. Agatha's 125th year anniversary, Cardinal Blase Cupich told the Sun Times, “St. Agatha was the first church I visited after becoming archbishop because I heard so many good things about the place — the resiliency of the people but also their willingness not to dodge very important challenges facing their community today.”

 

“It’s due to its leadership in Fr. Larry, who has the ability to not only be imaginative and bold but the ability to get people to work with each other. That has been the true magic,” the archbishop said. St. Agatha Church is located in the North Lawndale neighborhood at 3147 W. Douglas Boulevard and Kedzie Avenue. It was founded in 1893 to serve Irish families who had moved into the area near Douglas Park on the west side of Chicago. Today, St. Agatha is a mostly African-American parish serving families who live in the area bounded by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad tracks at Fillmore Street on the north; 16th Street from Lawndale to Spaulding Avenue and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad tracks from Spaulding Avenue to 18th Street on the south; Lawndale Avenue from Fillmore to 16th Street, and Spaulding Avenue from 16th Street to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad tracks on the west; and Rockwell Street on the east.