Chicago churches?

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Well because each used to have a decent number of Black residents for a few decades.

Andersonville? I guess it is part of Edgewater. In my imagination I kind of thought it went directly from Swedish to the lesbian/yuppie hybrid it is today.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

..In my imagination I kind of thought it went directly from Swedish to the lesbian/yuppie hybrid it is today.

Not at all.

I was born in Edgewater. It may be mostly "white", but my parents surely were not yuppies or gay and a huge majority of our neighbors were not either. It was pretty rough in many places in Edgewater for a few decades. When my family could no longer take it we moved to the northwest side.

Btw: portions (like south of Foster) of what people are trying to call Andersonville now are actually in the neighborhoods of Uptown or Ravenswood.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Btw: portions (like south of Foster) of what people are trying to call Andersonville now are actually in the neighborhoods of Uptown or Ravenswood.

Yeah, Helen Shiller lives there.

[mikey jam]

Originally Posted by wardniner

St. John Cantius is my parish.
It's experiencing a revival of biblical proportions. (Ba dump bump.)
Don't know if you caught Storytel's documentary "On Assignment: Saving St. John Cantius", but it was amazing.
Here's a link: StoryTel's "On Assignment" Series Strikes Chord With Viewers
We average 500 confessions on a Sunday. 500. Confessions. Every. Sunday.
That tells you a bit about the vitality of the parish.
Tridentine High Mass, English Novus Ordo, Latin Novus Ordo: they're all packed.
I drive from Rogers Park, but I know people who drive from Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan to go to Mass at Cantius.
St. Mary of the Angels is another example of a parish slated for demolition which was saved and is now going gangbusters. (In addition, IMO, it's now the most beautiful parish in Chicago...)
(By the way, my late great grandfather was a daily communicant at St. Alphonsus in Baltimore.)

Most of the old Baltimore ethnic neighborhood the Yuppies moved and so did the Hispanics.. One big difference is Hispanics go to church and have children. Yuppies do neither just have dogs. Most of the city churches lack parking since th eyuppies have 2,3 4 cars per household, Our churches suffer attendence wise, but some like St Casimirs is seeing more young people. Holy Rosary were Fr Ron Pytel had a miracle declared by the Rome there are hardly anyone in attendence anymore. As familles move furrher away the semtimental reasons of coming back leave as well.

[wardniner]

Shifting demographics are (mostly) negatively affecting inner-city church attendance everywhere.
But like Fr. Phillips at Cantius says, "If the interstate could take people away from the parish, it could also bring people TO the parish, right? I mean, it goes both directions, right?"

I think it's easy to blame shifting demographics and yuppies with their yappydogs, but Cantius is surrounded by yuppies and parking isn't the greatest in the world (though it's not impossible, thanks to a small lot behind the church) and it's still wall to wall parishioners.
I think the problem is deeper than demographics. And Cantius is proof that people will drive from very, very far away when they want to.

When my daughter was an infant and I would frequently stand outside Mass on the steps when she wasn't "behaving", I had some very nice conversations with yuppies and their doggies. They aren't all bad.
We certainly come from different lives, plain old me and Coach purse-carrying them. But hey, we can both appreciate the beautiful weather, or complain about the heat/cold, or taxes, or wonder about the 2016 Olympics, or any number of other things.

Sad about so many inner city parishes falling into ruin.
All those weddings, funerals, baptisms... so many memories connected to a parish.