What follows is a summary list of potential ideas that emerged after the initial 2019 St. Ignatius discernment process and subsequent talks with Loyola, its departments and the Jesuit community. Those ideas have been refined during the Renew My Church process, subsequent discussions following the closure of St. Ignatius Parish and the work of the Ignatian Mission Center after a Renew My Church committee charged with discussing the mission center idea was disbanded. What the mission center would actually do would depend on community and volunteer priorities, whether there is a physical location for the mission center (e.g., the St. Ignatius campus or another place) and funding. We endeavor to work to prioritize the aims of the mission center, see what the Catholic community is most interested in pursuing and begin to work with those outside the local Catholic community who would be interested particularly in the mission’s corporal works.

The possible programs are of two primary types, focusing broadly on spiritual works on the one hand and corporal works on the other. When members of St. Ignatius were surveyed during the 2019 discernment process, the top priority for programs among Spanish-speaking parishioners was youth programming of various types that could include events in the gym and auditorium; the Ignatian Mission Center currently does not have a plan or the resources to purchase or manage the former St. Ignatius school buildings. We are, instead, concentrating on keeping the food pantry running while we refine plans to make the church and rectory buildings a resource for the community. 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 a dire 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.

Corporal Works

The mission center hopes to be able to take stewardship of the church, rectory and parking lot at the former St. Ignatius Parish campus in Rogers Park. Architects we have hired have drawn up plans for the renovation and reuse of the non-sacred portions of the church and the rectory. Our consultants have given us detailed cost estimates for our proposed work. Following the renovations, these social services could be housed at the campus:

1. 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.

2. Affiliated Ministries: The office space could be made available for parish-related ministries and other compatible non-profit organizations. We are working with our architects to 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.

3. Community Counseling and Immigrant/Refugee Services including Loyola Community & Family Services (LCFS) and other counseling programs.

4. Other Potential Loyola Programming: School of Law Legal Clinic, Quinlan School of Business Social Entrepreneurship programming, English as a Second Language education, and School of Communication Advocacy and Social Change programming.

5. 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.

6. Extended outreach of existing parish programs of St. Gertrude and St. Jerome. 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. 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 shrine, using a 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:

1. Worship and housing of Shrines: Devotional Groups: Establishing St. Ignatius Church as a shrine able to house other shrines.

   Monthly gatherings, city-wide (prayer, meal and sharing)

   Retreats

   Special support on the respective feast days of each group

   Masses tied to devotions

3. School of Prayer

   Spiritual Exercises (19th and 18th Annotation)

   Monthly TAIZE Gatherings

   Workshops: Methods of Prayer

4. Just-Faith Modules (each would last 8 weeks in duration including immersion)

   Faith and Race

   Faith and Immigration

   Faith and Ecology

   Faith and Inequality

5. Retreats (weekends, including Masses)

   Men’s and Women’s Retreats

   Couples Retreats

   Retreats for Young Adults

   Family retreats

6. 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 Tradition (e.g., focusing on the Catholic concern for the Common Good and for A Consistent Life Ethic)

7. 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” (IPS)

   “Catholic Immigrants Conference” (Hank Center, Sociology Dept)

   “Habits of Hope in a Time of Pandemic” (Theology/Psychology Depts)

   “Protecting Our Planet Together” (Loyola’s School for Ecology)

8. Speaker Series for Young Adults: (like Theology on Tap)

   Promoting a Culture of Encounter

   Jesus as a Community Organizer

   The Work of Racial Justice

   Developing healthy relationships