Potential IMC Programs

The Ignatian Mission Center Society seeks to preserve St. Ignatius Church as a future Archdiocese of Chicago shrine. The IMCS exists “to foster the integration of Faith and works,” according to our Constitution. “We see many of our fellows ‘abandoned on the wayside,’ as Pope Francis puts it in Fratelli Tutti.”

“The Ignatian Mission Center Society, Societas Missio Centrum Ignatii, takes as its founding charism the zeal of St. Alberto Hurtado for outreach to our fellows and the spiritual principles of St. Ignatius of Loyola … We look to find God in all things, and especially in our fellows, as St. Alberto Hurtado did. With St. Alberto and St. Ignatius as our guides, we aim to show the effective love of Catholic Christians through our corporal works, while finding the strength to persevere in our work through enriched spiritual lives.”

What follows is a summary list of potential ideas that emerged after the initial 2019 St. Ignatius discernment process, the Renew My Church process and subsequent talks with potential members of the Ignatian Mission Center Society. What the mission center would do would depend on IMCS member, community and volunteer priorities, funding, and whether we take stewardship of part of the St. Ignatius Church campus.

The possible programs are of two primary types, focusing broadly on spiritual works on the one hand and corporal works on the other.

In the Renew My Church process, the continued operation of the food pantry was often mentioned as a goal. Because other social services would be best built around the food pantry, and the IMC saw an urgent need in the neighborhood, we made re-establishing the food pantry our first priority as a nonprofit. We are now building on the pantry’s work and success.

If you have any

Social services

Food Pantry.

The pantry was re-opened at a temporary site, 1735 W. Greenleaf Ave., on Feb. 7, 2023. It can be re-established at the St. Ignatius campus as part of our plan to co-locate social services at the campus. We would locate the pantry in about 7,900 square feet of church basement space that also would house offices, meeting rooms and counseling or medical exam rooms. The Greenleaf Avenue site may be left in place as a satellite pantry.

Affiliated Ministries

The space in the basement and elsewhere could be made available for parish-related ministries, other lay associations and other compatible nonprofits. We would renovate the residential part of the rectory as a transitional housing program for Spanish-speaking women who are victims of domestic violence, modelled on an existing program, House of Peace. House of Peace is a 20-year-old program based in Waukegan; there is no similar program on the North Side for Spanish-speaking families.

Community Counseling and Immigrant/Refugee Services

These could include Loyola Community & Family Services (LCFS) and other counseling programs

Other Potential Loyola Programming

Niehoff School of Nursing, School of Law Legal Clinic, Quinlan School of Business Social Entrepreneurship programming, English as a Second Language education, and School of Communications Advocacy and Social Change programming.

Community Gathering Space

The St. Ignatius campus would provide this even if only the church and rectory were retained, as the church basement includes a large meeting room and would provide more space after renovation.

Extended outreach of existing Catholic programs in the area

These include St. Gertrude’s Heart to Heart, which serves older residents, and the hot lunch program at St. Jerome, which before the pandemic fed people in need in the area and which has restarted as a hot meal program Monday evenings. Currently, we do not have plans to create a kitchen in the basement of the church but could still provide support for meals programs.

Spiritual works

The mission center’s primary spiritual work would be preserving St. Ignatius Church as a potential shrine, using the public lay association of the Christian Faithful to help support the upkeep of the sacred space, its corporal charitable works and devotions to the primary shrine and any other shrines housed at the church.

Programs could include:

Worship and housing of Shrines

Devotional Groups: Establishing St. Ignatius Church as a shrine able to house other shrines.
Regular prayer services focusing on devotion to St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Alberto Hurtado, the Light of the World and St. Joseph, Our Lady of the Sacred Coat, Our Lord of the Miracles, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Clouds.
Monthly gatherings (prayer, meal and sharing)
Retreats
Special support on the respective feast days of each group
Masses tied to devotions

School of Prayer

Spiritual Exercises
Monthly TAIZE Gatherings
Workshops: Methods of Prayer

Just-Faith Modules

Faith and Race
Faith and Immigration
Faith and Ecology
Faith and Inequality

Retreats (weekends, including Saturday morning Masses)

Men’s and Women’s Retreats
Couples Retreats
Retreats for Young Adults
Family retreats

In-depth Courses

On Scripture (e.g., on The Psalms, on the Prophets, on the Four Gospels, on the Pauline Letters)
On Catholic Contemplative Tradition (e.g., The Cloud of Unknowing, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux)
On Catholic Intellectual Tradition (e.g., making accessible the wisdom of the Catholic Intellectual and Cultural Tradition)
On Catholic Social Teaching (e.g., focusing on the Catholic concern for the Common Good and for A Consistent Life Ethic)

Lecture Series

“Meditations on Mary” (during Advent)
“Towards a Theology of the Cross” (during Lent)
“Spiritual Gifts Inventory” (during Eastertide towards Pentecost)
“Reimagining the Church in Chicago”
“Protecting Our Planet Together”

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