Weddings also build membership
On the eve of their wedding, the soon-to-be bride and groom were some of the last to arrive. It was Nov. 1, so it was pitchblack outside even though it was early in the evening.
Inside Holy Family Catholic Church on the Near West Side, small LED bulbs lit up the grand altar, where Karly Nesnidal and Kevin Lada would be married the next day. A group of the couple’s family and friends gathered by the entrance, oohing and aahing at the beauty of the church and its ornate architecture.
The 34-year-old bride went to Catholic grammar school and high school in Chicago, although not at Holy Family.
“Karly was looking for a parish to get married in,” said her mother, Michele Nesnidal. “They didn’t actually join one. Yet.”
As the rehearsal party waited, the Rev. Mike Gabriel began to talk about the history of the church, which recently marked its 161st anniversary. The pastor patted one of the building’s salmon-colored pillars fondly. Some of them have a tiny bit of a sway — not that anyone should worry, he said quickly, for the building has been tested to make sure it’s safe. The wooden structure, owned by the Jesuit order but now run by the Archdiocese of Chicago, survived the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and a dance with demolition in 1989. It’s the second-oldest Catholic church in Chicago.
Holy Family is a White Sox church, Gabriel said, because the Comiskey family, longtime parishioners, donated two of the stainedglass windows in the 19th century. “I can use a short homily here,” he joked. “Cubs fans, it takes them a little longer to get it.”
The comment thrilled the Nesnidals. An aunt announced the church’s baseball allegiance to the couple when they arrived moments later, and the bride-to-be smiled. “Kevin’s slowly converting,” she said, shooting a teasing look at Lada.
After Lada and Nesnidal’s wedding, Holy Family hosted two more ceremonies the next day, a Saturday. The church had 94 weddings last year, and Gabriel celebrated 81 of them. The pastor sees marriages as a way to evangelize young people, something the archdiocese’s Renew My Church plan aims to accomplish across Chicago. Newlyweds often join the parish after a positive experience preparing to marry in the church.
“There’s the fear that these will be the last people sitting in our pews unless we do something,” he said.
Nesnidal and Lada met with Gabriel before deciding to get married at Holy Family, and they tried to attend Mass at the church sometimes in the months before their wedding.
The bride-to-be looked around at the hundreds of bulbs illuminating the church with warm light on the brisk November night. “It’s beautiful,” she said softly. “It’s just beautiful.”