Mass-goers crowded into St. John Brebeuf Feb. 12, the church orchestra started playing majestic music and more than 40 Knights of Columbus lined the center aisle, their swords raised ceremonially.
But if worshippers expected Chicago’s new archbishop to make a quick appearance, they were in for a surprise. A dozen priests in cream-colored vestments began a procession past the Knights in their capes and plumes, then a dozen more, and they kept streaming up to the front until about 60 priests had taken seats on the side of the altar. Only then did Bishop Francis Kane and Archbishop Blase Cupich, who was recently appointed to head the archdiocese, appear.
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“Thank you all for coming out tonight,” Cupich said to the crowd of more than 1,300. It was the sixth of the Archdiocese’s welcome Masses for the new archbishop, each held in one of the six vicariates (regions) of the archdiocese. St. John Brebeuf hosted Vicariate 2’s event and the 60 or so priests came from the various churches in the vicariate, located on the North side and the near north suburbs. Many of their parishioners came as well.
During his homily, Cupich told the story of an immigrant woman who came to the United States shortly after World War I, when she was about 18 years old. Her mother had died during the war, and her father remarried a 22-year-old woman, who did not get along with her new step-daughter. To prevent bickering, the father sent his daughter to sell their farm’s produce at the daily market, but the daughter could not get the hang of riding the horse sidesaddle.
Finally, the father told his daughter, “Go to the United States with your brother. You’re no good to me,” the archbishop explained.
He used it to illustrate how sometimes the darkest moments and feelings can be transformed by God, and indeed it became a blessing as the woman’s life changed for the better.
Then he revealed, “That woman was my grandmother,” to a low murmur of “ohhhh,” from worshippers.
“By identifying that knot and untying it, she could see the goodness God created in her life,” he said.
Parishioners than came to the podium and offered blessings in Polish, Croatian, Tagalog, Spanish, Italian and English.
As Mass was about to conclude, two gifts were presented to the archbishop. Fr. Fawaz Kako of Mart Mariam Chaldean Catholic Church in Northbrook presented a Bible in Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and Bishop Kane presented an icon of St. Blase as a gift from Vicariate 2. He had commissioned it from Chicago-based iconographer Joseph Malham.
After the priests and archbishop exited, St. John Brebeuf pastor Rev. Michael Meany spirited the archbishop off to the parish ministry center, where parish volunteers stood waiting to serve trays of food, and a children’s choir was singing onstage to greet the archbishop. Soon, hundreds of churchgoers streamed in, and they sat at tables or stood in line to meet the archbishop and take photos with him.
Carolyn Drblik of the Catholic Women’s Club and Alice Kowalski of the Queen Jadwiga Society welcomed Cupich with the traditional Polish greeting of bread and salt.
While most of the guests were from nearby parishes, Carol Ann and Bob Braovac brought their son Luka, 7, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor last June, from Milwaukee, Wis. to be blessed by the archbishop.
“We’re basically hoping for a miracle,” Carol Ann Braovac said after Cupich gave the family his blessing and told Luka he would be praying for him.
At the reception, Andrew Johnson, director of the American Indian Center in Chicago, along with Georgina Roy, director of the St. Kateri Center, an Archdiocese of Chicago ministry to the American Indian community, led guests in a prayer to the four directions, asking everyone to face east, south, west and north in turn, as well as honoring the sky and the earth.
Many of the American Indian Center members, dressed in native American honorary attire, performed drumming. They were followed by other groups including a Croatian troupe.
The celebration went on past 10 p.m., with parish volunteers serving Polish ham sandwiches, fruit kebabs, poppy seed and chocolate cake, wine and coffee to the guests.
Pam DeFiglio is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.