Church closings, consolidations coming to South Shore

Four Catholic churches in the South Shore and South Deering neighborhoods will merge into a single congregation in the next five months.

Effective July 1, the parishes of St. Bride, Our Lady Gate of Heaven, Our Lady of Peace and St. Philip Neri will be combined into one, the Archdiocese of Chicago confirmed Tuesday night.

St. Philip Neri, 2132 E. 72nd St., will be designated the parish church and school. Parish leaders and members will be able to submit suggestions for a new parish name to Cardinal Blase Cupich, who will ultimately decide on the new moniker.

Sources told the Sun-Times that, in addition to the South Shore and South Deering closings, further church consolidations would soon take effect in Gage Park and Chicago Lawn.

St. Simon will merge with St. Gall, though neither church will close, sources said. St. Clare will join with St. Rita, as well, though it’s unclear when those consolidations would take effect. The archdiocese declined to comment on those changes Tuesday.

Last November, the archdiocese announced another round of parish and school mergers across the city and suburbs, all set to go into effect later this year.

In Norwood Park, St. Cornelius parish and St. Thecla parish and school will merge with St. Tarcissus Parish.

St. Columba in Hegewisch and Mother of God in south suburban Burnham will join with St. Florian, also in Hegewisch.

In Lincoln Square, Transfiguration of Our Lord will be combined with St. Hilary, as will Queen of Angels with St. Matthias.

Our Lady of Tepeyac, St. Roman and Assumption will become one parish in Little Village, as well.