Wait. Is it St. Andrew’s or Saint Andrew?
This morning Mark Brown’s column in the Sun-Times raises this age-old question and throws it squarely into the newspaper for all to ponder and debate. (I have the app on my phone. The last time I actually bought a paper copy of the newspaper was when it published a photo I took at a Lane Tech basketball game. But I digress.) Okay, maybe it’s just me who thinks about this St. Andrew’s v. Saint Andrew question. But that’s the point of this blog. (Again, I digress. Twice in the in the same paragraph. Enough already.)
Mark Brown’s column this morning features his heartwarming tale about ditching his out-of-town friends in order to attend a fish fry at Chicago’s “St. Andrew’s” Catholic Church at Addison and Paulina with his charming and lovely wife.
You see, St. Andrew’s is the next parish over from my parish, St. Benedict at Irving and Leavitt. But its more than that. St. Andrew’s has always been something of rival for St. Benedict. I am not proud of this but, at times, St. Andrew’s has not been spoken of in the most charitable terms.
In my mind at least, that was mostly because St. Andrew’s has excellent basketball teams that usually vanquished our beloved Bengals and often did so with the conference championship on the line.
And there was that time when my friend Robert was politely asked to either shut up or leave the gym when he argued a referee’s call a little too loudly, and repeatedly. Robert deserved it so I guess so I can’t hold it against a whole Catholic church community but they did hire the bad ref making calls in St. Andrew’s favor. Just saying.
Plus, and this is more of an unspoken thing. At one time, St. Andrew’s was more of lace curtain Irish kind of place. I come from an Irish family in the German parish. It’s not that way anymore, but I learned that perception my parents, my father really. He grew up in St. Benedict in the early part of the last century and for some reason that attitude printed on me.
I understand there was a time when St. Benedict were predominantly German and St. Andrew was largely Irish. St. Benedict had German pastors and St. Andrew’s had Irish ones. (Although interestingly, the one-time German pastor of St. Benedict, Fr. Bob Heidenriech, was born and raised in St. Andrew’s. Go figure. Again I digress.) St. Andrew has always been a little fancier—lacy curtain Irish rather than the working class, policeman/bus driver kind of Irish in my German parish.
But that’s not true so much anymore. St. Benedict is plenty fancy. I don’t know how many Irish policemen live in the neighborhood anymore but I bet one can count them on one hand. I only know one.
It was only a few years ago that I learned that St. Andrew’s name is actually Saint Andrew Catholic Church. No apostrophe and no “s.” As long as I can remember it’s been St. Andrew’s. It seems Mark Brown thinks so too and wrote it that way in the paper.
I am guessing it’s a “Jewels” v. “Jewel” Chicago-speak kind of thing. It’s just something one says for no apparent reason. As far as I know, the proper name of the place has always been Saint Andrew.
St. Benedict has always been “St. Ben’s” or just “Ben’s.” Kind of a shorthand. Not sure that applies to St. Andrew’s. I don’t recall anybody ever calling it “Andrew’s” or “Andrew.” It’s always been St. Andrew’s.
I had to give up my hard feelings almost a decade ago when Saint Andrew joined the 47th Ward with the 2011 map. I can’t be thinking poorly of a parish in the Ward. That can’t be good politics.
Plus, and more importantly, it’s not right to harbor ill feeling toward our fellow Catholics simply because my St. Benedict teams have suffered humiliating defeat after humiliating defeat wrought by the merciless hands of grade school kids. I mean I don’t feel that way about Queen of Angels or St. Mathias. They are wonderful people, worthy of love and respect. We must keep telling ourselves that no matter how many defeats we suffer. It is the Christian way. And this is lent after all.
So it’s Saint Andrew Catholic Church. And I’m okay with that.
I wonder if Mark Brown has any idea of the St. Andrew’s/Saint Andrew divide. But probably he does, he wrote St. Andrew’s all over the paper.
