CHICAGO (LifeSiteNews) — A Chicago alderman and professed member of the Democratic Socialists of America sent a letter to Cardinal Blase Cupich requesting that he restore all services at the Shrine of Christ the King, which he had canceled in August 2022.
“Since the summer, I have been deeply concerned about your administration’s decision to suppress the Institute’s ability to operate at the Shrine,” Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor wrote in her May 9 letter. “The Institute and the ever-growing congregation of Shrine faithful have been an integral part of the 20th Ward since they first arrived at the prior Cardinal’s invitation in 2003.”
READ: Cdl. Cupich bans Institute of Christ the King from saying public Masses, confessions in Chicago
Taylor was elected in 2019 and has served as a member of the Chicago City Council’s 20th Ward on the city’s South Side, which includes the Woodlawn neighborhood that houses the Shrine.
Taylor noted that the ongoing operation of the Shrine brought a “welcome” economic boost to local businesses in the area, and that the restoration of the Shrine “has attracted a significant amount of resources to our City, which, as you know, is sorely underserved.”
For those who did not see pic.twitter.com/S4JqvknbKh
— Kevin Tierney (@CatholicSmark) May 22, 2023
Cupich’s decision to cancel services, according to Taylor, has “deterred donors in the future and cut the Shrine off from the further millions it needs to be a fully functional and operational building up to the City of Chicago code.”
“On behalf of my constituents, I am asking your administration to restore confidence in the Shrine’s restoration by allowing the Institute to operate according to the terms of your original agreement with them,” Taylor wrote in her letter. “I am hopeful that the Shrine’s restoration may continue to flourish.”
Cupich authorized the shrine to be dedicated to the Institute of Christ the King (ICR) in February 2016, founded in 1990 to serve Catholics with a full traditional Catholic life, including all of the sacraments and devotions for those Catholics who desired it.
Following Pope Francis’ motu proprio in 2021 that cracked down on the frequent offering of the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments, Cupich was among the first diocesan bishops to issue his own norms for Chicago in January 2021, in which he effectively undercut the ability of the ICR to offer the full traditional liturgical life and sacraments to its burgeoning congregation and halted restoration of the church building.
READ: Archdiocese of Chicago claims Institute of Christ the King ‘chose’ to stop offering sacraments
“Less than 7 years after the faithful parishioners of the Shrine of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, run by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICR) in Chicago, had lost their church to a blaze, another type of inferno seemed ready to swallow up their community,” Trevor Acorn wrote in a story published shortly after the cancellation in September 2022. “This Blase, specifically Blase Cardinal Cupich, was rumored to be dealing a death blow to the burgeoning apostolate of the ICR.”
Notably, the restoration of a fully functioning church with the daily liturgical services and devotions of the 1962 and prior missal, was met with open arms by nearby neighbors following a fire at the Shrine in 2015.
“The members and officers of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago pour out our hearts to our neighbor Shrine of Christ the King,” said Minister Lawrence Brown, pastor of the church. “We have been blessed in so many ways, we felt that we must share some of the blessings in offering a place so that they may be able to worship the God of love… First Presbyterian Church is so happy to be able to help the Shrine of Christ the King.”
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Cardinal Francis George invited the ICR to Chicago in 2004 to restore the church, as well as the Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right to reopen and rebuild it.
A source close to the situation indicated that the priests (canons) of the ICR are currently based in the nearby apostolate at Our Lady of Częstochowa Shrine in Merrilville, Indiana.
LifeSiteNews requested comment from the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Institute of Christ the King, and Jeanette Taylor, but received no response by publishing deadline.