On Wednesday, July 26, 2023, a group of Benedictine staff and faculty took a trip downtown Chicago to the Pilsen neighborhood, to see where Benedictine University all began back in 1887, as a little schoolroom with only two students enrolled in the St. Procopius School. The trip was organized by Carrie Ankeny, Campus Ministry Director and Dr. Wilson Chen, Languages and Literature, we toured St. Procopius Church, St. Pius Church, and ended our trip at the Chicago Public Library Lozano Branch to have a wonderful catered lunch by a local Mexican eatery.

This past summer, the Faith and Justice Summer Reading Group chose the book “Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican” by historian Deborah Kanter, who took a decades’ worth of research into the Pilsen neighborhood from a Catholic parish perspective, tracing the immigration history from a predominantly Czech neighborhood to a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. Father James Flint, a current St. Procopius Abbey monk, was a consultant for Dr. Kanter’s book, and he came with us on our tour to the city.