Vatican slaps down Joliet bishop’s efforts to close historic parish in far southwest suburb

In the 1940s, a priest at Joliet’s St. Joseph Catholic Church brought famed slugger Babe Ruth to town for the dedication of a youth baseball field the cleric helped to build, according to published accounts.

More recently, members of the recently closed far southwest suburban parish appear to have hit their own version of a home run — winning an appeal they made to the Vatican to reestablish their parish that Bishop Ron Hicks, head of the Diocese of Joliet, merged with other local congregations earlier this year.

It is a rare rebuke for a bishop and comes as Hicks, raised in South Holland and an acolyte of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, is following Cupich’s model in shuttering churches and schools to deal with declining church attendance, fewer priests and financial challenges — though church officials have refused to say if and how the lingering sex abuse scandal has hurt their finances.

Bishop Ron Hicks.

Diocese of Joliet

“This is a very rare occurrence,” says Brody Hale, an attorney who served as “canonical advisor” to the St. Joseph parishioners who fought their parish closing.

Founded in the late 1800s to serve Slovenians, records show the parish had more than $1 million in the bank and nearly 900 registered members. Yet Hicks decided to eliminate its status as a standalone parish and folded its operations and members into a new parish centered at a different Joliet church building, along with several other congregations.

The St. Joseph church building remained open as a “secondary site,” as part of that newly created parish.

As congregants pushed back against Hicks, one of his aides implored them in a letter, “Try to look beyond St. Joseph Parish and see the bigger picture. God is leading the diocese in a new direction, and He is challenging us to work together with our brothers and sisters in Christ to build up His Kingdom here in Joliet. This is not something to lament; it is something to embrace.”

Hale says of the parishioners who fought the move: “They felt very much aggrieved — given how successful they are as a parish — at being wiped off the map.”

A statement on St. Joseph Parish issued by the Diocese of Joliet on Wednesday.

Diocese of Joliet

The arm of the Vatican that “revoked” the parish closing in an order dated Aug. 20 raised questions about Hicks’ reasoning, including finances, mass attendance and the “near disappearance of the Slovenian community.”

Michael Vidmar, who filed the appeal with support from numerous parishioners, was happy with the Vatican’s ruling but says, “We made it this far but we still don’t know what the bishop is going to do” from here.

Hicks’ office released a statement Wednesday saying, “At this time, no decisions have been made about the next steps. The canon law of the Catholic church provides the bishop with various options, including an appeal to a higher court within the Vatican. The bishop and his restructuring team will consider the options available and determine the best path forward for St. Joseph Parish and the Diocese of Joliet.”

The Vatican is the worldwide headquarters of the Catholic church, headed by Pope Francis, who named Hicks the bishop of the Joliet diocese in 2020. That is the arm of the church for DuPage, Will and Kendall counties, among others.

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