Future of the SMTG Parish – Updates
YEAR 2026

SMTG Townhall Meeting – February 2026 Updates (PDF)

Seven years ago, St. Cyprian and St. Celestine were combined into a new parish, St. Mother Theodore Guerin, with one school, St. Celestine, and two churches, St. Cyprian and St. Celestine, as part of the Renew My Church process. The Archdiocese requires us to review the process every five years, and that is going on now. St. Celestine School, with 390 students, is self-supporting and is not part of this review.

In mid-August 2025, Fr. Paul Cao invited parishioners from both sites to meet with a team from the Archdiocese of Chicago who have guided us in the process of reviewing the state of the parish.

As part of the process, the team looked at the history of our parish combination, our ministries, our finances, and has toured all the buildings on both campuses to see how the facilities are used and what repairs need to be made.

We held a Town Hall Meeting for parishioners on February 7, 2026 at St. Cyprian Church, to present recommendations about the future of the parish (see the February 2026 Updates above in PDF format). After that, Fr. Paul, with the aid of the Parish Pastoral and Finance Councils, will make a decision to present to our Vicar, Bishop José María Garcia–Maldonado and the Archdiocese as to plans for the future of our parish.

Latest Message from Fr. Paul Cao – February 22, 2026

Dear Parishioners of St. Mother Theodore Guerin,

Following a six–month extensive study and review of our parish buildings, finances, and resources, it has been decided that St. Cyprian Church will end regular Sunday Masses sometime in June of this year. This decision was announced at a Town Hall Meeting at St. Cyprian on February 7, 2026.

The decision to close a church is never taken lightly. It is the result of long periods of consultation, prayer, and study by our local Multi-Site Review Team and the Archdiocese. These difficult decisions are necessitated in part by changing demographics, lower attendance at mass, fewer priests available for ministry, the costly upkeep and repairs needed for the aging buildings, and the need to steward our resources to best support evangelization and our mission to be disciples of Jesus.

We know that this news brings pain and sadness. It is, however, a necessary step to secure the future of Catholic ministry in our area. I ask for your prayers during this time of transition. Let us pray for one another, for our staff, and for a smooth transition. I trust this will build a new, stronger future together for St. Mother Theodore Guerin parish.

In prayer,
Fr. Paul Cao
Pastor of St. Mother Theodore Guerin Parish

Reflection on Behalf of the Multi-Site Review Committee

It is always hard to make decisions about letting go. As I age and realize all the treasures, I have collected that my family may or may not treasure, I must begin to let things go. I have been a baptized Catholic for over 75 years and belonged to many parishes, worked in many throughout my years of service in the archdiocese. I have observed that my faith, my belief in God certainly has been nourished by all of those places and people. However, my faith is in God and not in a particular parish, building or priest. This recommendation does not come easily, but upon reviewing all we were asked to look at it seems the best direction to ensure that future generations have faith.

A lot of what we looked at was already happening prior to the decision of consolidation from Renew My Church. Decisions were often made on major repair and maintenance issues based on what bills needed to be paid or what needed to be done immediately to keep the building in use. Our Mass attendance was declining at both sites before 2016. Now, we have 5 Masses at two sites and combined attendance is less than 1000. It has leveled off and is not declining.

According to our most recent financial report we have over 2000 registered families.

Asking people to increase their offering or setting a fund to raise a certain amount of money for capital repairs to keep the buildings open and operational is just a Band-Aid and will not benefit the bigger picture of our parish. The decision to close St. Cyprian will only be delayed, not stopped.

Selling the property at St. Cyprian would give the possibility to expand our ministry to the parish, young and old alike. The few activities that remain in the rectory could easily be moved to the St. Celestine site which has many unused spaces.

Fr. Paul has done everything he could during these past 7 years to keep the site open and operational. He has also listened carefully to the advice from the committee that has been meeting these past 6 months. Now, he will need to finalize the plan with the input from the Parish Council and Finance Council before presenting it to our Vicar.

Lois DeFelice