Mary Mother of God Parish has opened a heritage room at the Saint Gregory the Great Parish Center in Andersonville.
"So, Mary Mother of God Parish is a merged parish. A couple of years ago, St. Thomas of Canterbury, St. Ita, St. Gregory the Great all were merged together by the archdiocese, and as comes with any change, there was some uncertainty, and people didn't know what that would look like," said parishioner Stephanie Held.
All three Chicago churches remain open. Their history is now tucked into this space thanks to the help of volunteers and students at Loyola University. Their archive includes photos, documents in various languages, and artifacts.
"The very first artifact that stuck out to me was the Diamond Jubilee from 1920. It has all three of the parishes from very early stage in Chicago Catholic history, and I thought that was, like, symbolically really great to have, given the merger, and that it allows everybody to see that, like, we of many, we are all one," said Loyola University student Ana Rosaslanda.
"I think some of our oldest materials are from the turn of the last century, like the 1890s. Some of those are in German, because you know, Chicago has a long Catholic history, but it's also very ethnic-centric," Held said.
The space is meant to honor the three parishes and also highlight the city's rich Catholic history, especially with a Chicago-born pope.
"When Pope Leo got elected, I ran out and bought a couple of newspapers, so that's in the archives. So, in 100 years, they'll be like, 'Wow, look at the front-page news.' I think it says, like, 'Da Pope' on it, which is hilarious, and yeah, I would love to see more of that. I mean, if he ever comes to visit, I hope we save some of that memorabilia. That'd be incredible," Held said.