<
>
While ministering to Spanish-speaking Catholics in Texas, Father James Tort CMF was told about a recent influx of Mexican immigration to the south side of Chicago. Eager to see for himself, Father Tort traveled to Chicago and found an enclave of Mexican steelworkers in need of a church of their own. The Claretians conducted missions out of boxcars and storefronts until an Army barracks was transported to serve as the first Mexican Catholic church in Chicago, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Eventually, a new church was constructed and the Claretians were invited to assume ministry at Saint Francis of Assisi in the Back of the Yards neighborhood and the missions that grew out of it.
This collection is sorted by parish.