Church of Saint John Cantius — Attraction in West Chicago Township

I would give 5 stars if there were kinder people. Some of these are the type of people who are Catholic without charity. I will still come here when I need to get to mass and happen to be in the area because it is a beautiful church with a beautiful mass. I just recognize many of the people here are not the kind of people I would want to hang with. I grew up and still am extremely Catholic. My mom was born in Italy. My grandmother said the rosary every night, sometimes more than once. I believe in praying for the dead and doing charity for people here on earth and being as kind as I can to everybody because thats how I was raised.

Again, this is a pretty church inside and they say some nice masses, but I unfortunately do not feel comfortable confessing here. Two times I felt judged by a priest. Once the priest screamed at me for talking too loud. I was just trying to speak over the noise and I had just had surgery on my ear due to an injury. He could have been a little kinder in how he asked. Another time he was really pressing me about my relationship status and in that moment, it was something I did not want to talk about as I felt it wasn't relevant to my current confession. I overall felt like a kid at elementary school again. It's sad that priests are either nut job leftist these days or reactionary far right zealots who judge you. St. John is where the intolerant far right come. I miss the days of normal Catholic priests who tried to model Jesus not political activists from either side. I don't want Cupich liberal types to dominate the church. At the same time, I do not want intolerant unwelcoming folks like this. They remind me of this Catholic lady with 5 kids who was fighting with me on a medical forum once just because I was being critical of a medicine and describing my side effects. She got pleasure out of my suffering and believed hurting another person did not matter as long as she is being righteous by the church by being a married woman with 5 kids. At the end of the day, I do not need the permission of other Catholics to be a Catholic. I am Catholic in my heart and thats what matters most. I do not need to wear my religion on the outside as these people do. The funny thing is many of them likely weren't even born Catholic. They are Catholic converts who see the religion as trendy and them becoming Catholic is merely reactionary to leftist politics rather than a desire to be close to God. I of course welcome converts, but it scares me when people see a religion as trendy just as a few years ago they saw the Orthodox religion as trendy and more "exotic" than the "boring" Protestantism of their parents.

Even cradle American Catholics tend to be super intolerant. They seem closer to legalistic Protestants at times. I remember as a child in Catholic school in Chicago at my old church OLV that was sadly closed by Cupich, it was filled with some of the most awful hateful people. No wonder they did nothing to save their church and when I tried, I was shunned. The school admin themselves would threaten to send kids home if their parents couldn't come up with the tuition on time or if there was some delay with the bank. I just fear these types are pushing so many people away...

Growing up in the 50’s and going to a Catholic School we went to Church every day except Saturday and that was the day we were SUPPOSED to go to confession. I believe that the good Sisters knew that we didn’t always do what we were supposed to do so they made sure that they found other ways of going to confession during the school year. I was certain that I had gone to Mass enough in my lifetime as a youth to last forever. Latin Mass was not practiced after Vatican 6th. At least not that I knew. I sent my children to Catholic school but it was very different in the Mass and the school teaching. As I have become older, I found that I missed going to Mass and I was very excited to hear that there was a Catholic Church that had the Latin Mass. I had a Catholic Church across the street from me but I was more than happy to drive the 30 minutes to be a part of the Mass of my youth. Confessions were at every Mass except for the special occasions and I was even nervous about the amount of time that had gone by do to the lack of interest in going to church since all of the things that had changed. When I started going back to church and receiving the sacraments I felt so much better and I looked forward to going. Unfortunately I retired and had to move further away. Not in the city anymore and now my vision is not what it used to be. It would take me over an hour to drive with good vision and I don’t have the confidence to take a chance on driving that far. I really just go to the grocery store and doctor appointments….lots of doctor appointments. I miss going to Mass at St.John Cantius. I would go every day if I could but I don’t have any option. If a person who has grown up in the time when we were expected to go and “not get in trouble “,I would urge you to go and see how wonderful it is. I haven’t been to Mass in a long time since I retired and I miss it. I always felt closer to God when I was at St.John’s. Now everything is different and I don’t feel the closeness anymore,with people wearing shorts to Mass or looking like they just rolled out of bed or just came in from a long night partying. I miss the Latin Mass and would love to be able to go back to that beautiful church and feel closer to God. I pray for God’s blessings and patience...

What an amazing church! I've been overseas and visited so many in my life, but my son and I stumbled upon this one by accident one Sunday morning. We were arriving from the airport on our way back home, when we decided to look for a nearby church for morning mass. I've only attended high mass- and never in Chicago- a few times so this was a pretty incredible experience to share with my son. It was very authentic. From the moment you climb the church's front steps, to entering the foyer, you are struck with awe and reverence.There are statues behind iron gates by each door, that you notice right away. The main doors to the cathedral are left closed during service, so parishioners wait and talk in the Lobby. It seems modest and the scripture and paint on the ceiling seems old and worn. A lot of the attendees are European foreigners, who speak in their native tongue. They dress in traditional Sunday church attire, more formal than other parishes I've visited. There is a small but interesting museum like room on the right side which also sells some religious artifacts, cds, and prayer books. When you finally enter the main cathedral however it is remarkably ostentatious compared to its humble foyer. You are overwhelmed by the huge marble columns, statuesque galleries, gold gilded paintings and finished antique woodwork. But what people come here for the most aside from praying is to hear the beautiful choir and it's angelic chants, much like the renown monks in Europe. Definitely a place that is off the beaten track yet a stark contrast to the modern day secular architecture of Chicago's...