Holy Family - Immaculate Conception - Queen of Peace
General Description of our Tri-Parish Structure
Reverend Gary Graf has served as Pastor for Holy Family Parish for twelve years (1994-2006). In 2006, he was appointed by the Archdiocese of Chicago to serve as the Priest for Holy Family, Queen of Peace and Immaculate Conception Parishes for three years. As a united Catholic Community, the three parishes reach out to North Chicago and Waukegan to meet the needs of the communities. The parishes proudly support their Catholic school, Academy of Our Lady, to educate the next generation of Catholic youth. A general description of each entity follows:
Holy Family Parish
In 1991, St. Joseph and St. Bartholomew, two predominately Eastern-European parishes, united to form what is now Holy Family Parish. Since its inception, Holy Family has opened its doors to all members of the community with the goal of developing a united Catholic community. The result is that Holy Family Parish has become the largest Latino-serving church in Lake County with over 1800 families (over 4000 members). Waukegan, Illinois, the town in which Holy Family is located, is the center of Latino immigration in Lake County, with a population that is 53.4% Latino. Differences in language and tradition have created the opportunity to look at how we come together as a Catholic community, in order to create a more inclusive environment. Holy Family currently offers four services in Spanish and one in English. Each Mass has different liturgical style, reflecting the culture of the attendees.
Immaculate Conception Parish
Immaculate Conception was the first Catholic parish built in Lake County in 1841. Before that, circuit riders, or missionaries, came to the area from Michigan to visit the different settlements. Immaculate Conception was built by Cardinal Mundelein and originally intended to be the parish for a new diocese in Lake County. Immaculate Conception still remains a part of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and is considered to be the Mother Parish of Lake County. The parish is trilingual, with Masses held in English, Spanish and Polish. Annually a Filipino celebration takes place, and Immaculate Conception offers a Mass in Tagalog.
Queen of Peace Parish
Queen of Peace was established on July 1, 1991 as the result of the consolidation of three local churches, Holy Family Parish (North Chicago), Mother of God Parish and Holy Rosary Parish. These parishes were built by German, Irish, Slovene, Croatian, Slovak, and Polish immigrants and served the North Chicago and Waukegan communities for a combined 266 years. Queen of Peace is located in North Chicago, a racially-diverse, economically-struggling community. There are 22 ethnic backgrounds represented at the parish, with some members belonging to the Black Catholics group. Masses are held in English and in Spanish.
Queen of Peace Parish participates in SHARE Food, a program that distributes affordable and nutritious food as a way to build community and strengthen families. Through this program, Queen of Peace provides three community parishes—and anyone else in need—with food for 37-75 families per month.
Ministries and Outreach
The parishes have over forty religious education ministries that outreach to form individuals in the Catholic faith, including Special Religious Education for Developmentally Challenged, Alpha and Omega, a Spanish-language ministry that promotes family harmony, and RICA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), a Spanish-language ministry that educates adults on the tenets of the faith. Festivals take place celebrating the traditional Latino holidays, including Day of the Dead, Mother's Day, Posadas (prior to Christmas), and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast. These events are intended to offer hospitality to the larger community, and are very inviting to the predominately Spanish-speaking community. Parishioners make visits to the sick, shut-in and the incarcerated to provide Communion. A bereavement ministry is available to help families who are facing a death to plan the funeral and work through their grief.
The parish's Community Social Services works to meet the tremendous needs of the church's parishioners and the greater community. CSS welcomes and assists all of our brothers and sisters who are unable to meet their daily living needs of food, clothing and shelter, while focusing on programs to help each of them to become self-sufficient and to live in society with dignity, independence and pride as productive members. Currently, the Soup Kitchen serves more than 24,000 meals per year and the Food Pantry provides food, clothing, furniture and limited financial assistance to over 29,000 individuals per year. Holy Family provides a shelter operated by PADS that is open 365 days a year with 42 beds and living quarters for the homeless. An Immigrant Center helps members of the community to learn English, obtain their GED and pursue citizenship.
Parish Office · 450 Keller Avenue · Waukegan, IL 60085
· Phone: 847-623-2655