Manya Brachear Pashman

Michael Mesirow tries on the family Santa Claus outfit at his mother's house in Homewood on Dec. 20, 2017. Mesirow carries on the tradition of playing the role of Santa for sick children at La Rabida Children's Hospital in Chicago on Christmas Day.

At a children’s hospital, a Jewish family carries on its Santa tradition — 47 years and counting

December 18, 2018 at 2:23 a.m.

Michael Mesirow’s earliest memory of Christmas Day is in a back office of La Rabida Children’s Hospital, helping his father tug off the heavy black galoshes and hang the red...

Chicago's Cardinal Blase Cupich will visit Puerto Rico on behalf of Pope Francis, as the island struggles to recover from the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Maria.

Pope sends Cupich to Puerto Rico

August 22, 2019 at 6:47 a.m.

Chicago's Cardinal Blase Cupich will visit Puerto Rico on behalf of Pope Francis, as the island struggles to recover from the devastation by Hurricane Maria. In a letter to priests...

Gilbert Matthews, a former Chicago police officer, is the public safety director for St Peter's Catholic Church in the Loop.

After Texas shooting, Chicago-area churches seek balance between hospitality and security

May 23, 2019 at 5:08 a.m.

The Rev. Kurt Hartrich doesn’t know what more he can do to keep his parishioners safe. They already must cross two thresholds and pass muster with security guards before they...

Female church executive named lead pastor of Willow Creek

May 31, 2019 at 9:04 p.m.

Exactly 42 years after the Rev. Bill Hybels pioneered a contemporary style of evangelical Christian worship, the senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church announced this weekend that a woman...

Trista Bonds, right, a robotics engineer, talks with robotics apprentice Thomas Phelps, 51. Bonds and other members of Apostolic Church of God opened a new manufacturing plant on the campus of the Chicago State University.

South Side congregants launch robotics training, plant to generate jobs, hope

May 23, 2019 at 5:02 a.m.

Trista Bonds, a robotics engineer, once felt a tinge of guilt for helping companies replace factory workers with machines. Living on Chicago's South Side, where industries have come and gone,...

Pope John Paul II gave a three-hour Mass in Grant Park in 1979.

St. John Paul II relics visiting Guadalupe shrine in Chicago area

June 2, 2018 at 6:08 a.m.

It was 38 years ago this week when then-Pope John Paul II drew the largest crowd in Chicago's history to celebrate an open-air Mass in Grant Park. On Wednesday night,...

The Rev. Hugo Londono waves at cars while walking with a procession through the Back of the Yards neighborhood to celebrate the arrival of three replica statues of the Virgin Mary from Jalisco, Mexico, known as "Las Reinas de Jalisco," or "The Queens of Jalisco," to St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church on Oct. 5, 2017, in Chicago.

Virgin Mary statues bring hope to Back of the Yards

May 23, 2019 at 5:01 a.m.

Raised by his grandmother in Mexico after his parents separated, Gabriel Rojas recalls the breathless anticipation of his mother's annual visits and the joyful celebration when she arrived. That same...

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, speaks April 4, 2017, at Peace Corner Youth Center in Chicago's Austin neighborhood.

Rauner broke his promise by signing abortion coverage bill, Cupich says

May 23, 2019 at 4:59 a.m.

A few hours before placing his signature on a controversial bill expanding taxpayer-funded abortion coverage on Thursday, Gov. Bruce Rauner made a courtesy call to Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich. The...

M. Cherif Bassiouni in his Loop office of DePaul University.

M. Cherif Bassiouni, human rights champion, dies at 79

August 18, 2019 at 9:28 p.m.

The son of an Egyptian ambassador and the grandson of the first president of the Egyptian Senate who helped draft that country's first constitution, M. Cherif Bassiouni had unyielding principles...

Barbara Blaine, founder and president of SNAP speaks outside the offices of the Chicago Archdiocese on April 28, 2016, a day after Dennis Hastert's sentencing.

Barbara Blaine, founder of priest-abuse victims group SNAP, dies at 61

June 2, 2018 at 12:05 p.m.

Immersed from a young age in the Roman Catholic tradition of social activism, Barbara Blaine knew early on that she wanted to commit her life to serving the poor and...

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