Muldoon: A True Chicago Ghost Story : Tales of a Forgotten Rectory"Father Leo then paused with a deep breath before going on. 'There are many problems here, and some very strange things happen late at night that I just can't explain.' "Poverty. Crime. Politics. Scandal. Revenge. . . . And a Ghost.These are the untold stories of the last days of a forgotten Chicago parish by the last person able to tell them: Fresh out of the seminary in 1956, Father Rocco Facchini was appointed to his first assignment, the parish of Saint Charles Borromeo on the city's Near West Side. Adapting to rectory life with an unorthodox, dispirited pastor and attending to the needs of the rough, impoverished neighborhood were challenges in themselves. Little did Rocco know that the rectory was being haunted by a bishop's ghost!Muldoon: A True Chicago Ghost Story dives into Father Rocco's four-year saga at Saint Charles, where his spiritual undertaking becomes a worldly adventure. His supporting cast includes a housekeeper inappropriately involved in her pastor's affairs, and a genius-priest who carries a gun, thwarts neighborhood crime, and teaches Rocco about "loving the poor." And there's the pastor himself. He padlocks the refrigerator, guides young priests only in the weekly ritual of Bingo, and entangles Rocco in the dirty work of a fraudulent shrine.As a backdrop to this chaos, the rectory experiences a host of supernatural manifestations, and Rocco discovers the legend of Bishop Peter J. Muldoon. Are there clues in this story of early stardom and great achievement, clerical competition and revenge, accusations and scandal, a missing ring, excommunication, and possibly murder that explain why the unexplainable is happening all around him?Upon delving into the church history, clerical politics, local folklore, neighborhood sociology, and paranormal activity of Muldoon, you, like Rocco, may be left wondering: Has he been kept alive to tell the story of Muldoon, clear the man's name, and memorialize the bishop's beloved and forgotten parish of St. Charles? |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
2 | 19 |
Chapter 4 | 27 |
Chapter 8 | 71 |
Damen Feehan Henneberry Gill | 83 |
Appendix | 223 |
Appendix C | 237 |
Bibliography | 249 |
| 257 | |
| 265 | |
Common terms and phrases
appointed Archbishop Feehan Archdiocese of Chicago assistant auxiliary bishop began bingo Bishop Muldoon building Catholic Church Cemetery Chancery Office Chicago Fire Chicago River conscious afterlife consecration Crowley's David Facchini DEDICATED diocese door Duke eventually Father Casey Father Crowley Father Gaughn Father Goedert Father Muldoon Father Schumacher floor front ghost stories Gill going heard Henneberry Holy Family Holy Name Cathedral Holy Trinity Hoyne Illinois immigrants Irish Irish-born priests Italian Jeremiah John John Coughlin Jubilee Kane and Irma Kane's kitchen knew living looked main altar Marquette Mass Michigan Monsignor morning Navin neighborhood never night once ordained parish of Saint parishioners Pastor Kane pastor of Saint Peter Pius priesthood Quigley rectory rectory's Reprinted from Silver Rocco Rockford Roosevelt Road Saint Anne Saint Charles Borromeo Saint John Bosco Saint Mary's Samuel Cardinal Stritch seminary served someone spirit Street wall West Side young