The parish, Corpus Christi Church, is being merged with other predominantly African-American parishes to form a new parish; an archdiocesan spokesman said that the parish’s sacred artifacts will be “removed and centrally stored to be relocated later.”

“The sanctuary that once held over 3,000 congregants now holds 50 on a good day,” according to another local report. “There’s been a precipitous drop in Black residents in Chicago over the past decade.”