A Striking Symbiosis Of Church and City

Roman Catholicism, especially in its Irish guise, was essentialto the making of Chicago. In sheer numbers of adherents, theCatholic church dominated. Its parish structure created mile-squareneighborhoods of the expanding city starting in the late 1800s andcontinuing well into this century. Its members toiled in thestockyards and steel mills and dominated the police and firedepartments. Its sons ran the city's politics, its daughtersdominated public school teaching staffs.

One would have to attend today's outdoor mass in Grant Park tosee what the church will make of this in its 150th anniversarycelebration, but the symbiosis of church and city is clearly thestuff of Catholicism, Chicago Style, a collection of essays by EllenSkerrett, Edward R. Kantowicz and Steven M. Avella (Loyola UniversityPress, $21.95 paperback, $35 hardcover).

The book contains an introduction by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin,but it is not an official church publication. And while the essayscelebrate the church's role here, they are not uncritical.

Kantowicz opens with an examination of ethnicity, suggestingthat church authorities prevented splintering by tying parishes tothe archbishop through central ownership of church holdings. Thechurches these groups built, he notes, were statements of grandeur bythe working poor.

Other essays look at the Irish influence, the role of Chicagoin shaping American Catholicism, at the church's role in empoweringits members in politics and business. The authors also examine theinfluence of several leading churchmen, including George CardinalMundelein and John Cardinal Cody, the alpha and omega of Catholictriumphalism here.

For all its merits, this book is not a comprehensive history.Most of the essays were originally published in magazines andacademic journals. Materials in one essay often duplicate those inanother. There is not enough about the non-Irish Catholics. And hadwe the space, we would challenge the profile of Cody, that, inattempting balance, sanitizes a man with serious personal andprofessional failings.

Still, for those interested in Chicago history, Catholicism,Chicago Style is well worth the price.

A Book of Saints: True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives, byAnne Gordon (Bantam, $12.95). Chicagoans who think of saints' namesas shorthand for apartment-to-rent ads can find a fuller appreciationof some of those who lent their names to Chicago parishes in thiscollection of short biographies.

A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels, by GustavDavidson (Free Press, $19.95). Traditional religion meets the NewAge in this compendium of angels for all occasions, from abortion tothe zodiac reading. Among choices appropriate for today: Hamaliel,angel of August; Raphael and Michael, the archangel and angel withspecial dominion over Sunday, and Tubiel, Gargatel, Gaviel andTariel, angels who rule summer.

Conversing with the Planets: How Science and Myth Invented theCosmos, by Anthony Aveni (Kodansha, $14). Angels haven't beenwithout rivals in the struggle for celestial dominion. In this lookat how metaphysics and science have sometimes vied and sometimesmeshed in the effort to understand the heavens, ananthropologist/archaeoastronomer explores the cosmic insights ofastronomy, mythology and anthropology.

Scissors, Paper, Rock, by Fenton Johnson (Washington Square,$10). In this novel built on 11 related stories, a Kentucky familystruggles with terminal cancer in one generation and AIDS in thenext.

A Big Storm Knocked It Over, by Laurie Colwin (HarperPerennial, $12). In her fifth and final novel, the author (who diedin 1992) takes a comic look at marriage, careers and parenthood inManhattan.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima(Vintage, $10). The adolescent boys at the heart of thisimpressionistic novel aspire to a life free of sentiment. A sailor,admired by the boys for his strength and masculinity, becomes anobject of scorn when he turns his romantic attentions to the motherof one of the group.

New on the mass market racks: A Fit of Tempera, by Mary Daheim(Avon, $4.99), a mystery about a murderer drawn to artists asvictims, one of the Bed-and-Breakfast series; Rescued, by JessicaDoyle and Carolyn Nichols (Harper, $5.99), a nonfiction account of amother's battle to rescue her abducted children; The Angel Maker, byRidley Pearson (Dell/Island, $5.99), a forensic thriller, about thetheft of organs for transplant from runaway Seattle teens; The ChildQueen, by Nancy McKenzie (DelRey, $4.99), a fantasy novel, retellingthe legend of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere.

Also, Swan Star, by Betina Lindsey (Pocket, $5.50), a romanticfairy tale, the concluding novel of the Swan trilogy, about a warriorthreatened with death for his abduction of a swan maiden; Armed &Female, by Paxton Quigley (St. Martin's Press, $4.99), a gunadvocate's advice to women on buying and learning to fire a gun;Winter Rain, by Terry C. Johnston (Bantam, $5.99), a frontier novel,sequel to Cry of the Hawk, about Civil War veteran Jonah Hook'sefforts to rescue his kidnapped wife and children; Widow's Web, byGene Lyons (Ivy, $5.99), a nonfiction account of a Little Rock murderand sex scandal.