"When we moved [from Van Buren and Wabash] in 2002, we had 415 households, and we now have over 1400 households on the register. We have had an average of 9 new households per week since September," said Maryanne Cushing, the pastoral associate.
Originally chartered as St. Mary of the Assumption in 1833, the parish's first church structure, a log cabin, stood at the corner of Lake and State Streets. In 1843, with the establishment of the Diocese of Chicago, St. Mary's Cathedral was built at the corner of Madison and Wabash. That building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871 and the diocese moved its cathedral parish to Holy Name Cathedral, north of the Chicago River.
Old St. Mary's then occupied four different buildings in and around downtown Chicago before the Archdiocese of Chicago built the current parish complex-complete with its own parking lot-in 2002.
Unlike the many Chicago Catholic parishes that were organized after the major waves of European immigration began in the 1850s, Old St. Mary's Church has never been dominated by one ethnic group or nationality.
Long-time parishioner Dorothy O'Malley believes the parish's early history of inclusiveness has had a lasting legacy.
"Everyone was welcome from the beginning," O'Malley said. "We were part of Ft. Dearborn when the church was a log cabin at State and Lake. The Indians were part of our community. We were welcoming other denominations because they didn't have their own place to worship, so we began with diversity and we have continued with it at every location."
Old St. Mary's diversity was noticed as early as 1893, when a Chicago Tribune headline, pointing to the disparity in wealth amongst its members, read, "The parish of contrasts-extremes of life depicted in the strangest religious sub-division in the United States."
"We were always known as a church that embraced extreme opposites," said Kathryn Moery, who has attended Old St. Mary's for over 20 years and serves as co-chair with O'Malley on the 175th Anniversary committee. "The rich, the poor, the young and the elderly."
In the mid-1970s, Old St. Mary's welcomed an influx of parishioners from Chicago's Filipino community, and today the Filipino community is still a major presence at the church, which hosts a service during simbang gabi, a traditional Filipino Christmastide novena.
"When people come here, they are always struck by the diversity," said Fr. Michael Kallock, CSP, Old St. Mary's current pastor and a member of the Paulist Fathers.
In addition to the celebration of its 175th anniversary as a parish, Old St. Mary's will commemorate 105 years of Paulist leadership. The history of diversity at the parish is in no small part the legacy of the Paulist Fathers, who have operated Old St. Mary's since 1903.
The Paulists, founded by Fr. Isaac Hecker in 1858, were the first religious community of priests to be founded in North America. Their mission, initially and today, was to express the message of the Catholic Church to "modern people living in North American society-to be missionaries in the modern world."
Hecker was himself a convert to Catholicism, having been raised in New York City by Methodist parents.
"One of the things about the Paulists is that we're not judgmental, particularly with regards to secular society," said Fr. Kallock. "Because Hecker saw a lot of good in America-the creativity, the freedom, the democracy-a lot of the core American values."
While the initial focus of the Paulists was to evangelize to American Protestants, Kallock said they have shifted their priorities in recent years in response to the declining attendance in Catholic parishes at large.
"One of the ways our own mission has changed is that while we were originally presenting the Catholic faith to non-Catholics and trying to bring them into the church, now there are a lot of un-churched and marginalized Catholics and that's become a big part of our mission, reaching them and bringing them back," Fr. Kallock said.
In 2004, Old St. Mary's parish, responding to a demand expressed by its membership, opened a school. The school, which currently has 83 students, will add one grade each year in a plan that would see it eventually offer grades K-8.
At a time when many Catholic parishes are shrinking, their schools vanishing, Old St. Mary's has become a South Loop success story, revitalized by an influx of new members and good planning by the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Parishioners at Old St. Mary's believe their success is the result of an open, accessible, and welcoming environment and the legacy of their long history of diversity.
"If you come to our church, no matter who you are, you'll find a group of people who want to embrace you," Moery said. "My husband converted to Catholicism after 25 years. We were caught up in the Paulist spirit. He found community here and out of the blue, seeing my second child take confirmation, he decided he was going to become a Catholic."
Old St. Mary's Church (1500 S. Michigan Ave.), Chicago's oldest Catholic parish, will kick off its 175th Anniversary events on Saturday, February 16, with a mass to be celebrated by Cardinal Francis George at 5pm.