The Cathedral Parish of St. Raymond Nonnatus 1917-1992
Written by Robert R. Morris

Part 6: Founder and a Legend
Francis E. Scanlan was born in Killaloe, County Clare in Ireland in 1875. He began studies for the priesthood in Ireland in 1893, but partway through his studies, he immigrated to the United States. Ordained in Baltimore in 1900, Fr. Scanland spend six months in Wilmington, Deleware before moving to Chicago. His first assignment was to All Saints Church in Chicago, but after two years was reassigned to the primarily Irish-immigrant Holy Cross Parish on East 65th Street in Chicago's southeast side, where he spent the next 14 years. On June 28, 1917, Archbishop Mundelein, himself appointed to Chicago little more than a year before, notified Father Scanlan of his assignment as pastor of the new parish in Joliet.

The new parish of St. Raymond Nonnatus would be divided from St. Patrick's to serve the Catholics on the northwest side of Joliet.

Shortly after his arrival, Father Scanlan gathered his new flock and made arrangements for temporary quarters for Sunday masses. The Sisters of St. Francis opened their doors to the congregation, and for a little over a year, masses were held at the chapel of St. Franis Convent.

The following November, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the first St. Raymond Church at 705 Douglas Street. At those ceremonies, Father Scanlan set the tone of parish pride with his comments to the fairthful standing and shivering in the snowy wind:

"Let the whole parish cooperate to make this event a success. No people are more united than the people of St. Raymond. [The new parish complex would be] second to none in the diocese."

But mother nature played a bit of a prank on Father Scanlan's dreams. The winter of 1917-1918 was so harsh, all construction came to a halt, delaying progress until March, 1918.

On Sunday, April 28, 1918, Bishop Alexander J. McGavick, an auxiliary bishop of the Chicago Archdiocese, helped Father Scanlan set the cornerstone of the first church. Father Scanlan's plans called for a parish complex that would include a church, school and rectory to cost eventually $100,000 during a time when a brand new Ford sedan was priced at $720.

Compused in 1992 dollars, the St. Raymond's Parish plant would cost $2,500,000, and this from a congregation of 287 families numbering 600 members.

Building was accomplished more quickly now that war was over. In September, 1918, the doors of St. Raymond's school were opened and the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate welcomed the 190 children during the first school year. Sister Mary Mercedes was the school's first principal.

Even when scarce materials, particularly hard to get because of World War I, proved little obstacle to Father Scanlan, and by the time European Armistice was announced on November 11, 1918, the church was virtually ready for occupancy.
The first mass was celebrated in the first St. Raymond chuch on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Sunday, December 8, 1918. As a link to his past, Father Scanlan invited Rev. D. D. Hischen, pastor of Holy Cross Church in Chicago's Washington Park neighborhood (where Fr. Scanlan had served as an associate for so many years) to preach the homily. Over 1,500 people from all over Joliet, representing all Joliet Catholic parishes, ajmmed the church and spilled into the street.

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