Renew My Church and Building a New Reality
Building a New Reality Sharing Information Sessions
Fr. Rex's Letter to Ascension and St. Edmund and Fr. Carl Becoming the new pastor of the Parish
Letter from Bishop birmingham on the Ascension and St. Edmund Naming Process
Thank You for Participating in Our Recent Ministry and Parishioner Meetings!
Three meetings were held: September 7 for Ministry Leaders of the Parish (all involved in any ministry were invited), and Parishioner Meetings held September 15 and 18. These meetings were focused on encouraging dialogue with Ascension and St. Edmund parishioners around the vision for our new parish. Participants were asked “In 2025, Cardinal Cupich has declared [our parish] to be ‘one of the most vibrant parishes in the archdiocese.’ What is it about our parish that makes us vibrant and dynamic?” The small group discussions were lively, and the questions, concerns, and suggestions were documented. They have been collated and will be addressed in this space over the next few weeks.
We want to thank those parishioners who were disappointed in our initial meeting and voiced their concerns. With each meeting, the Unification Team worked to address those voiced concerns. We especially want to thank the ministry leaders who returned for the final meeting where specific information was shared regarding the Unification timeline to date and where we go from here. The timeline is inserted in this week’s bulletin
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An important part of our recent Parishioner Meetings was a “Letting Go” exercise. Have there been hurts, misunderstandings, or confusion historically between our parishioners on both campuses? Are there fears or sadness around the changes that are happening in our parish? Can YOU let go of these experiences so we can move forward and focus on following Jesus? He will carry our burdens and lead the way.
The name of our new, unified parish will be the way we identify ourselves in our parish bulletin, on our checkbook and contracts, in the way we talk about ourselves in our Catholic community, and even more important, the spirit we share and what we represent to others.
Sunday, September 25th is the deadline for suggestions. Forms are available on the websites, in the Parish Offices, and at the entrances to both churches. Unification Team members will be available after all Masses this weekend to answer questions and assist in filling out the forms for those with special needs. The Ascension-St. Edmund Unification Timeline is at the right on this page. Copies are also available at the Church entrance.
Dear Parishioners,
You are invited to be part of this exciting opportunity of naming our parish, newly unified through the Renew My Church (RMC) process. Please take some time to review the following information and keep this process in your prayers.
As part of the naming process below we are asking for your preference or suggestion on a new parish name. All parishes have the opportunity to continue with the combined temporary name decreed July 1, or to establish a new identity for the parish community as outlined below:
Renew My Church Temporary Name
-Ascension and St. Edmund Parish
- Please note that church buildings are consecrated spaces that keep their current names. The naming process described here relate to the name of our Parish community boundaries.
Timetable and Naming Process
-All parishioners are invited to submit preferences and ideas from September 10 through September 25.
- Parishioner input will be consolidated down to a short list of names for RMC leadership to consider.
- Please note rationale for a suggested name is as important as the name itself.
- A name may pass screening because of a compelling justification.
- All parishioners are then invited to indicate their preferences pending the outcome of the suggestion phase.
- The Presbyteral Council will screen the submitted names.
-The Cardinal selects a unified parish name.
Guidelines:
- Mission-Driven. A community comprising two parishes, each with a proud history
- Thoughtfully consider how we will re-focus ourselves to the mission that Jesus entrusted to us.
- Unique Identity. Names are important and can define us uniquely.
- The names selected will reflect the identity of our newly unified parish.
- Names symbolize who we are and what we want to be as a faith community.
- Names of existing parishes, schools, or properties, in the archdiocese will not be considered.
- Saints and Feast Days. The names need not necessarily be saint names, but must pass canonical muster.
-Names should be associated with a feast day for the new parish to celebrate.
Internet links are offered for your convenience and consideration:
- https://www.catholic.org/saints/
- https://catholicsaints.info/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_saints_canonized_by_Pope_Francis
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_saints_canonized_by_Pope_Benedict_XVI
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_saints_canonized_by_Pope_John_Paul_II
Let’s show our enthusiasm by inspiring the Cardinal with our ideas as he discerns the future name of our unified parish.
Peace,
Fr. Rex Pillai
Options to submit a suggested name:
1) Online using this form at:
https://forms.office.com/r/K1u2dp90r1
2) Fill out a provided paper and turn it in to a parish office. Note: Forms are available at all Church Entrances.
3) Or call your parish offices during the during office hours when you can reach a live staff person by phone, and they will input the information below. The deadline for submission is 11:59pm, Sunday, September 25, 2022.
Pine Room on the Ascension Campus.
If you are interested in working on the Shared Stories Committee,
please contact us at [email protected]
Followed by a reception for all ages “On the Green” hosted by
the Knights of Columbus and the Unification Team.
Any parishioner needing transportation to attend these events should contact the
Parish Office at either parish campus or use the email noted below.
This first meeting is intended for the leaders of the parish who are active in our various ministries. The focus is to bring parishioners together with similar interests to begin a dialogue.
No merging of ministries is planned at this time.
Sunday, September 18, 2022, at 1 pm in the Pine Room at the Ascension campus.
These meetings will provide an overview of the process of unification to date, identify immediate needs, and discuss the anticipated process going forward.
We invite you to contact us through a dedicated email account: [email protected]
Followed by a reception for all ages “On the Green” south of the church
hosted by the Reception Committee and the Unification Team.
(In case of rain, meet in Murphy Hall.)
the Knights of Columbus and the Unification Team.
Parish Office at either parish campus or use the email noted below.
Mark Your Calendars and Spread the Word
Ministries Meeting
The focus is to bring parishioners together with similar interests to begin a dialogue.
No merging of ministries is planned at this time.
All Parishioner Meetings
Sunday, September 18, 2022, at 1:00 pm in the Pine Room at the Ascension campus.
Unification Team Update July 2022
November 2021
We are grateful for the opportunity to submit feedback to you. The pastors and pastoral leaders, parish delegates, and the hundreds of parishioners who participated in this process look forward to your feedback and response. We would like to continue and expand our collaborative ministry together. We are excited to continue inspiring disciples to accompany all members of our family of faith to a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
• The Grouping Team has enthusiastically embraced the call to recognize that our four parishes are diverse parts of a single Church and welcomes the opportunity to form structures that will allow our existing communities to collaborate, grow out ministries, and evangelize our community together. Our Grouping has embraced our proposals to combine our efforts even at the expense of existing structures, and has been most resistant to proposals that would preserve the status quo at any member parish.
• The Grouping Team has also benefitted from the energetic and engaged lay leadership of its member parishes and believes that the success of any scenario will depend on the recognition that our flock should be led by a pastor or pastors who will take advantage of that energy, informed by the Spirit of Vatican II.
• In accordance with our parishes’ strong commitment to social justice, our Grouping would also welcome the creative repurposing of existing redundant facilities to new purposes that would serve the needs of our community.
• Finally, in part due to this same commitment to social justice, our Grouping Team asks that the Commission reject any scenario that would simply close the St. Catherine-St. Lucy church (“SCSL”). As set forth below, SCSL, serves as a visible reminder of the interrelationship between suburban Oak Park and Chicago’s underserved west side, and maintaining that church as a place of worship provides a unique opportunity to support not only future evangelization efforts but existing partnership with other Catholic resources in our community.
• Leadership: this Grouping is blessed with substantial lay leadership, informed by the spirit of Vatican II. Every parish has active and engaged parishioners, who have proven track records of participating and contributing to the liturgical and administrative lives of their parishes and engaging in social justice work in the world beyond the parishes. The ambitious plans preferred by the Grouping Team reflect the engaged and energetic lay leadership present here.
• The ordained leadership chosen to shepherd this diverse and highly engaged flock is critical to the Grouping’s success in carrying out the Renew My Church mission. Depending on which scenario is chosen, there will be a need for one or several pastors, each faced with well-educated and engaged parishioners. Additional associates will also be needed to support the unification and pastoral needs of the newly configured Grouping. It is important that the clergy chosen to be forward-looking and excited to create a vital Vatican II inspired Church. Anyone who yearns for or wants to re-instate a pre-Vatican II Church would stifle the palpable energy and commitment of the people of these parishes, and ensure the failure of the Renew My Church effort. Success is never assured, but it would have a much greater chance if we the Church were led by clergy who share this vision.
We are grateful for the opportunity to submit this feedback to you. The pastors and the pastoral leaders, parish delegates, and the hundreds of parishioners who participated in this process look forward to your feedback and response. We would like to continue and expand our collaborative ministry together. We are excited to continue inspiring disciples to accompany all members of our family of faith to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayerful reflection and consideration of this feedback regarding our future.
You are invited to a special meeting on March the 8th at 7 PM. You may attend “live” in St. Giles McDonough Hall or you will have the opportunity to participate in the meeting on line via Zoom. Here is the link:
Passcode: 322704
We will learn more about this phase we are now in, Organization Transition, moving which will in turn move us to the third phase (Building Our New Reality).
There will be one meeting for all four parishes as we are merged into two new parish realities while still keeping some of our Oak Park Grouping connections we have already established. Please plan now to join us for this informative meeting, Tuesday March 8th, at 7 PM.
Ascension, St. Catherine/St. Lucy, St. Edmund, St. Giles
January 29, 2022
Dear Parishioners of the Oak Park Parishes,
We, your priests, write to share with you the results of the Renew My Church parish configurations. The pages that follow contains the official document coming from the Archdiocese of Chicago. You will find that the information is detailed, but offers a clear direction for building the new parochial reality that we shall soon begin to implement.
In addition, we wish to thank our parish Pastoral Staffs with whom we have had many discussions and from whom we have gained important insight for moving forward. Our Parish Councils have also been involved in these arduous and challenging discussions and we thank them sincerely for all the ways that they have guided us, encouraged us and offered valuable input to us.
Finally, we offer our heartfelt gratitude to you, our beloved parishioners, who have prayed along with us for a noble outcome, who have shared your thoughts and opinions with us and who have stayed the course, trusting that we would always have your best interest in mind as we addressed both the practical and pastoral needs of our 4 communities of faith.
The decision:
Ascension and St. Edmund Parishes will unite as one parish, effective July 1, 2022. Fr. Rex Pillai will become the pastor of this united parish.
St. Catherine / St. Lucy and St. Giles Parishes will unite as one parish, effective July 1, 2022. Fr. Carl Morello will become pastor of this united parish.
May our Lord bless us all.
Pastor, St. Edmund Parish
Fr. Rex Pillai
Associate Pastor, Ascension Parish
Oak Park Renew My Church Update: January 2022 from the Archdiocese of Chicago
Discernment Process
Ascension, St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy, St. Edmund and St. Giles Parishes engaged in the Renew My Church (RMC) review and discernment process over the past few months. 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 structure during this challenging time of the pandemic.
Based on their meetings and feedback gathered from the larger parish community, they submitted feedback to the archdiocese, which included hope and commitment to work as a united Oak Park Catholic community regardless of the specific parish structure decided.
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 Birmingham are grateful to Fr. Morello, Fr. McGivern, Fr. Pillai and the Grouping Team who gathered together, and all who offered feedback through the recent discernment process.
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 this grouping.
The parishes will be structured as two parishes, with expectations that pastors and leadership teams will continue the collaboration that has already begun across Oak Park. This reflects the hope and commitment expressed by the grouping team to work in concert as an Oak Park Catholic community.
Ascension and St. Edmund will unite as one parish effective July 1, 2022.
o Both churches will continue to host a regular schedule of Masses. The specific schedule will be determined by the pastor in consultation with parish leadership.
o Ascension will formally be designated the parish church where the united parish’s sacramental records will be kept.
o Fr. Rex Pillai will serve as pastor of the united parish.
o The local community will discern possibilities for the permanent name of the united parish, within guidelines provided by the archdiocese, and submit three to five options to Cardinal Cupich. Each church retains its name.
o Ascension School will serve as the parish-governed school.
St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy and St. Giles will unite as one parish, effective July 1, 2022. o St. Giles will formally be designated the parish church where the united parish’s sacramental records will be kept.
o St. Catherine St. Lucy Church will remain sacred space with the worship schedule to be determined by the pastor in consultation with parish leadership. This may or may not include a regularly scheduled Sunday Mass.
o Fr. Carl Morello will serve as pastor of the united parish.
o St. Giles School will serve as the parish-governed school.
o St. Catherine St. Lucy School will continue in its current structure supported by Big Shoulders with pastoral support provided by the parish.
o The local community will discern possibilities for the permanent name of the united parish, within guidelines provided by the archdiocese, and submit three to five options to Cardinal Cupich. Each church retains its name.
Based on the hopes and commitment expressed by the grouping during the discernment process, the archdiocese affirms the Oak Park grouping’s vision to use St. Catherine St. Lucy campus as a base for powerful ministry outreach to the West Side of Chicago. Ministry outreach efforts will be supported by the entire Oak Park Catholic community.
Rationale
The archdiocesan RMC Commission was grateful for the excitement from many in the grouping to work as one united Oak Park Catholic community, with the possibility of formally uniting in one parish. Considering long-term priest placement needs and not wanting to lock into a parish structure that may not be manageable for future pastors, the archdiocesan RMC Commission proposed structuring the parishes as two parishes would be the most prudent decision at this time.
Retaining two parishes at four campuses provides flexibility for future priest placement and also avoids complexity that would result in Ascension and St. Giles Schools being under the same parish entity. The archdiocese remains grateful for the support of Big Shoulders and Fenwick’s partnerships at St. Catherine St. Lucy School.
Being structured as two parishes does not preclude efforts to work as a united Oak Park Catholic community. To best serve the areas of Oak Park, Austin and Galewood with two parishes, the archdiocese encourages parish leaders to continue to share ministries.
The archdiocesan RMC Commission clearly heard the grouping’s desire to retain all four churches and supports continuing all as church buildings retaining their sacred character.
o The pastor and parish leadership team of the newly united St. Catherine-St. Lucy and St. Giles parishes will provide a recommendation regarding the frequency of worship at St. Catherine-St. Lucy Church, which may or may not include a regularly scheduled Sunday Mass.
The archdiocesan RMC Commission encourages the Oak Park Catholic community to collaborate with the West Side Catholic community to envision how best to collectively address the spiritual and social needs of their shared ministry areas. This includes using the resources of both communities as well as their physical presence at St. Catherine St. Lucy, St. Martin de Porres, St. Agatha, and other Catholic institutions serving the community.
Next steps
The renewal process calls us 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.
The newly united parish communities will embark upon the next phase of renewal, focusing on strong evangelization to the world around us. We know that this structural change is just the beginning of our journey of renewal.
Renewal of our Church means that every Catholic, every searcher, and everyone who loves Jesus and his Church, will have to look anew at what it means to be Jesus’ disciple and to live out that discipleship.
Profound gratitude to all involved in the process to date, and prayers for all those who will take up the next phase of renewal, sharing faith and evangelizing those searching to know Jesus more deeply.
We are pleased that Bishop Kevin Birmingham, our regional bishop and Cardinal Cupich’s representative to our region of the archdiocese, will be with us on Friday, January 28, at 8:00pm, to join us in prayer and share an important update on the future of our parishes. This will be held online.
Fr. Rex
Call to Prayer
As the Renew My Church process in Oak Park unfolds, it is essential to ask the Holy Spirit to continue to guide us and all those who will be making recommendations and decisions. Therefore, the parishioners of Ascension, St. Catherine/St. Lucy, St. Edmund, and St. Giles will be coming together to participate in a prayer novena (nine days of continuous prayer).
The Novena will begin on Sunday, November 7 at our weekend liturgies. For the next eight days, you are invited to participate in daily prayer with Renew My Church as the intention. Some ideas to inspire you include:
Ascension
Monday - Friday at 8:15 am
St. Catherine/St. Lucy
Tuesday at 8:30 am
Wednesday at 8:30 am
St. Edmund
Monday at 8:30 am
Friday at 8:30 am
St. Giles
Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 am
Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 am
Saturday at 8 am
2. Visit another Oak Park Church for personal prayer
3. Participate in Contemplative Prayer (Ascension Parish - Saturday mornings at 8:30 am)
4. Participate in Eucharistic Adoration (St. Giles Parish - Thursday at 7:00 pm)
5. Truth and Justice for Racial Healing (Zoom – Thursday at 7:00 pm)
6. Walk a Labyrinth. Some labyrinths in the area are located at Ascension Catholic Church courtyard, Dominican University, and First United Church (corner of Kenilworth and Lake Streets)
7. Pray the Rosary for Peace (St. Giles Parish – Saturday following 8:00 am Mass)
8. Color a Mandala
9. Take a 30-minute silent walk in nature
The Renew My Church Novena will conclude with an Evening Prayer Service on Monday, November 15 at St. Edmund Parish at 7:00 pm.
Novena Prayer for Oak Park Grouping Renew My Church
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.
We call upon you as members of Ascension, St. Catherine/St. Lucy, St. Edmund and St. Giles Parishes to aid us in our discernment for your people. We trust in your guidance and in the gifts you have showered upon us: wisdom, knowledge, understanding, courage, reverence, right judgment, and wonder and awe.
Assist us, we pray:
to hear you clearly
to listen to each other attentively
to imagine our future boldly
to discern your direction wisely
to persevere in your holy will courageously
to stay together in charity to surrender our own plans readily
to embrace the greater good to hand on your gifts to future generations.
Enlighten our minds to discover the path you lay out for us that our combined efforts open hearts to faithful discipleship in Christ Jesus. Amen.
October 5, 2021
Dear Ascension Community,
We need your help! As Ascension Parish goes through the Renew My Church process with our neighboring Oak Park parishes, we are at a stage where a list of scenarios have been created and feedback from our parishioners is needed.
On October 4th, our parish gathered to hear about the Renew My Church efforts of the Oak Park Parish Grouping. We recognize getting away on a weeknight is not easy, so we did tape it and it is available here:
You can also access it on our YouTube channel here. The recording will provide all the information, we hope, that will allow you to offer your feedback to us to aid us in decision making.
To assist the small team representing Ascension in providing feedback to our larger Oak Park Grouping, we need you to offer your feedback. To offer feedback, please view the meeting recording via the link above, then access the feedback form here: Renew My Church Feedback Form (pdf). (Below is a link to a Word version of the form). Once you complete the form you can place it in the collection basket at church, drop it in the Parish Center mailbox at 808 S. East Ave, or email it to [email protected]. We must receive these forms or emails by this Sunday, October 10. Please know that your feedback is very important as decisions will be made based on suggestions from our parishioners.
If you would like to review the scenarios in written form one more time, you can find them below, or click here to view them. If you have a different scenario in mind that is not suggested in the materials provided, please add that on your feedback form.
We thank you for your participation in this important process. We know that our parish church is important to you. You and your families are important to us and we want to be able to continue to serve our parishioners in the future.
Please submit all feedback by this Sunday, October 10, 2021, either via the collection basket or, better yet, to our specially designated email address: [email protected].
Thank you for making the time to provide us with this important feedback.
Letter Announcing Scenarios and October 4 Town Hall Meeting - Updated September 29, 2021
Blessings,
Fr. Carl Morello
Pastor, St. Giles Parish, Administrator, Ascension Parish
Fr. Rex Pillai
Associate Pastor, Ascension Parish
Bulletin Letter from the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 19, 2021
June 2021 Update on Renew My Church
An Update on Renew My Church
A Letter from Fr. Carl and Fr. Rex
This letter can also be found in the bulletin for June 13, 2021
Dear Ascension Parishioners,
The heart of our Renew My Church effort is the parish grouping process—the goal of which is to ensure that all parishes across the archdiocese have the vision, leadership, resources, and operational foundation necessary to create an effective culture of evangelization that makes disciples, builds communities, and inspires witness.
Changing church attendance patterns over many decades has left many parishes heavily burdened by operational and financial concerns that limit their ability to have expansive ministry programs around evangelization and discipleship formation. A decreasing number of priests available to serve at parishes creates a need to rethink our leadership model to include a stronger lay leadership core team with proper governance structures for accountability. There is a need to ensure that we have a common understanding of proven evangelization programs and processes that are rooted in Catholic teaching.
All 344 parishes in the diocese have been joined into 98 groupings. Within these groupings, parishes will determine opportunities for collaboration and unity following a structured process for discernment, transition, and building a future together.
Many of today’s challenges require looking and working beyond our individual parish. The only way to make sustainable change in our communities is to work together in new and bold ways. Groupings are called to greater collaboration to take on these challenges with bold vision.
Our grouping consists of the 4 Oak Park parishes. Grouping parishes together allows for local-level ownership and planning to take place and ensures that local feedback is present within the process of renewal. Grouping allows for assessment of new parish models. Additionally, parish groupings help strengthen relationships between parishes, provide a better evaluation of the current realities within their community, make for a clearer discernment of what configuration would be best for their community, and more effectively identify what they each have to share and what the spiritual renewal in their community will look like.
A set of parishes is considered a good grouping if they: are reasonably close geographically. serve the same broader community (e.g. the parishes serve the same public-school district). have obvious commonalities and affinities (e.g. parishioners occasionally attend mass at more than one parish in the grouping).
Here at Ascension Parish, after much consultation and consideration, the 5 members of our parish grouping are: Maryanne Polega, Annie Bookmeier, Lisa Reed, Tom Gull, and Jim Schwarber. Mary Catherine Meek is the parish Pastoral Staff Member on the group and all of these individuals have demonstrated leadership and wisdom in a variety of ways in the parish.
The first meeting took place on Tuesday, June 8th. There will be several gatherings throughout the course of the next several months. Our goal is to create a few scenarios for what the new Catholic footprint will be in the Oak Park area. Once submitted, Cardinal Cupich will make the final determination as to what changes will actually be made.
We will continue to update you with information when it is made available. Please pray for the success of these proceedings and that they will indeed serve to make a more vibrant, healthy and sustainable Catholic community for everyone who currently worships at the 4 Oak Park parishes.
Blessings,
Fr. Carl Morello, Ascension Church Administrator &
Fr. Rex Pillai, Associate Pastor
May 2021 Letter to Oak Park Parishes from the Priests of Oak Park with an Update on Renew My Church
February 26, 2021 Introduction to Letter from Bishop Manz outlining the time frame for Renew My Church in Oak Park
February 26, 2021
Dear Ascension Parish Family,
This week, we are sharing a letter sent to the four Oak Park parishes from Bishop Manz. The letter outlines a time frame for our parishes to begin the Renew My Church, or RMC, process. The Renew My Church mission has as its priorities making disciples, evangelization and vocations, building communities, leadership development, mission vitality, operating stability, and finally, inspiring witness by our faith in action. All of these priorities stem from this fact, WE ARE CALLED BY JESUS CHRIST! The journey is meant to be spiritual, bringing people to a life-giving relationship in Jesus Christ, as well as the necessary changes that are needed in the structure and operations of our parishes. This is a quick overview of much of what RMC will require of each parish as we enter the process this June.
Please read the letter and join us in praying that the Holy Spirit, always with us, gives us wisdom, courage and guidance as we move toward this process.
Blessings,
Fr. Carl and Fr. Rex
This past January, Ascension parish council and staff joined the parish councils and staff of our fellow Oak Park parishes for an introductory zoom presentation on the RMC process.
Renew My Church Letter from Bishop Manz February 2021