Gene Urbaszewski is prepared to move heaven and earth to save his church. Whether he can move the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago is another matter.
“The carpet has been pulled out from under us as a living, viable parish–large enough to pay our bills. Our people were never involved in the discussion,” says Urbaszewski, brandishing a thick sheaf of photocopied clippings on the church being named a “Marian shrine” last year, on the order of priests that runs the place, on the archdiocese, on the cardinal, on what makes for a good parish life, on good church decor. Urbaszewski, a stocky, graying insurance broker, is the chairman and his wife, Terry, is the publicity head of the Saint Mary of the Angels Restoration Committee, an organization that has consumed much of their money and energy in the last nine months. They take a no-surrender stance on the closing of the church Gene’s grandfather helped found.
After a piece of painted plaster–“Tiny,” stresses Urbaszewski. “A real nothing. About one inch by an inch and a half, about the thickness of a coat of paint”–fell from the dome, grazing a female parishioner on the forehead in the summer of 1985, the archdiocese ordered a series of studies from Wiss Janney Elstner Associates, a firm of consulting engineers on retainer with the archdiocese. Their final report, which came out in August 1987, estimated a cost of $1.4 million to repair the church; the most pressing repairs would cost $639,000.
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Holabird and Root said the 26 nine-and-a-half-foot-tall angels were in dangerous condition and should be taken down; a few, perhaps, could be reconstructed in the garden. “Everybody keeps wanting to tear the angels down–toss ’em on the ground and smash ’em to smithereens,” growls Lavicka. “But they’re up there real strong; each one has a steel bar through it. My guys went up there and literally waltzed with each one. Even if pieces did fall, they’d fall on a parapet, not on the ground. My cost for the angels is $30,000 to fix ’em up, versus $85-ish. Holabird and Root wants to tear down the four watchacallums–the four minidomes. That’s ridiculous.”
The other estimates included tuckpointing the entire structure. “The walls are 20 inches thick,” says Lavicka. “If they’re missing a little mortar between the bricks, who cares? If you see a place where a brick’s gonna fall out and hit someone, you fix it. I’d say $10,000 is all that’s required there.”
Roache refused to comment on any aspect of this story. Benware denies that he prefers storefront churches to more conventional ones; his response to a request for a response to the Lavicka report was “No comment.”
