La Pieta statue at St. Adalbert Church is moved after months of protests

Covered in a bright blue tarp and tied down with an orange harness, the La Pieta statue was moved out of the historic St. Adalbert Church in Pilsen Tuesday morning and heaved onto a flatbed truck as a group protested its removal, standing in the way of the vehicle for half an hour before the protesters were placed into custody by Chicago police.

The replica of Michelangelo’s La Pieta statue, which depicts Mary cradling Jesus’ body on her lap after the crucifixion, was finally moved after months of protests from neighbors, parishioners and other advocates who say the statue is a beloved relic of the shuttered church’s history.

The Archdiocese of Chicago told the Tribune the statue would be moved from St. Adalbert, which closed in 2019, to St. Paul Catholic Church, about a mile southwest. The statue’s removal was initially scheduled for October, but was postponed because of a permit issue. The new permit, issued Nov. 9, cleared workers to create a 6-feet-by-7½-feet hole in a wall on the east side of the church.

As the statue was moved to the truck, bystander Rosa Ibanez looked on and shouted at the workers, “Look how you’re treating her!”

Ibanez, a former parishioner, called the church a “focal point” in the community. “This is bad, they’re stealing from the church,” she added.

“Protect her like we did,” yelled another onlooker, Judy Vazquez, as workers lifted the statue onto the waiting truck.

Vazquez led a small group of protesters to form a human chain and pray in front of the truck moving the statue before police detained some of them. The truck then left as neighbors came out of their homes to watch the commotion.

“Se llevaron a la Virgencita,” a passerby said in Spanish. They took the Virgin Mary.

Charges are pending for five protesters who were placed into custody, police later said.

Vazquez and other members of St. Adalbert’s Rosary Group have kept watch over church property as they waited for the construction to commence. Vazquez said she has arrived on-site as early as 6 a.m.

“We’re going to keep vigilant about being there,” Vazquez told the Tribune earlier. “We’re going to keep the challenge up.”

In August, workers started to remove a section of brick on the rear, east exterior wall of the church. That work stopped since they did not have the proper permit for the job.

Since then, attempts to save the church and its beloved replica of Michelangelo’s La Pieta statue have united Polish, Spanish and English communities alike. In October, about 40 people braved the cold to voice their concerns and protest the sculpture’s removal.

“Parishioners will have access to worship before and better enjoy the sculpture in its new home,” a past statement from the Archdiocese of Chicago said. “Moreover, this valued community treasure can be better safeguarded and preserved in an active parish church.”

The permit confirmed the worst fears of advocates like Dalia Radecki, a Pilsen resident, retired Chicago Public Schools teacher and volunteer for The Resurrection Project.

Radecki lives close to the church and she and other community members previously watched over the sculpture day and night for 40 days.

“Some of us were sleeping in cars and trucks out in the cold, protecting the Pieta because it’s so sacred to us,” she said last month. “It’s going to be a very sad and traumatic day for a lot of us when it’s removed. Maybe a miracle will happen.”

Radecki said she wants church leaders to be more transparent about their intentions, sharing concern that the church will be torn down altogether in the future.

“We have dreams, and we have hopes,” she said. “Why doesn’t the Archdiocese come talk to us? They’re people of God, and they don’t come and talk to us.”

St. Adalbert Church sits at 1650 W. 17th St. in the Pilsen neighborhood. The church was first constructed in 1874 and rebuilt in 1912 following a fire. The place has long maintained its Polish roots, even though Polish immigrants have since dispersed from Pilsen, which now boasts a large Hispanic immigrant community.

Julie Sawicki, president of the Society of St. Adalbert, sees the church as a representation of the two groups’ shared values, faith and history. As a daughter of Polish immigrants, she said it is her “obligation” to honor those who came before her.

“This church is one of their achievements, and we should be protecting it and celebrating it as an example of what immigrants contribute to our society,” she said.

Even after the parish held its final Mass in a trilingual service in 2019, the Society of St. Adalbert and other community groups have rallied for the church’s reinstatement as a sacred space. Cardinal Blase Cupich attributed the church’s closure to declining parish populations and at least $3 million in renovations.

“It is reprehensible at every single level,” Sawicki said. “It’s sad that people can’t put their personal interests aside because it sits on valuable land.”

According to Sawicki, the church is designated as historic with architectural significance on the city’s “orange” list of historic resources. But she has demanded the city designate the church as a landmark, which would cushion it with even more stringent protections.

She said the statue’s Carrara marble was mined from the same quarry that Michelangelo used for the original Pieta.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who represents Pilsen, has petitioned the city for that classification, she said. He has also called on Cardinal Blase Cupich and Mayor Lori Lightfoot to meet with parishioners and protesters about their concerns.

After three and a half years of work, there’s been no progress, Sawicki said.

“We’re here in 2022, and it still hasn’t been landmarked,” she said. “You have something like this in jeopardy because politics is more important than saving something that is a jewel for the city of Chicago.”

For Schiller Park resident Irene Moskal-Del Giudice, the thought of the statute’s removal brought her to tears.

While she doesn’t live in the neighborhood, the church’s history has resonated with Moskal-Del Giudice, who is of Polish ancestry and previously served as the president of the Polish American Congress Illinois Division.

She remembers visiting St. Adalbert around the time it closed and being struck by its beauty.

“That church is a beautiful reminder of everything we worked for,” she said. “This church is so beautiful, so inspiring. Everything about it reaches your heart.”

With the statue’s removal, she staunchly believes in preserving a sculpture she said represents the mother of God herself.

“We pray to our blessed mother, and we see her as there in a statue,” she said. “We see her in our hearts. To remove the Pieta is to remove our hearts.”