Members of the Chicago Fire Department dismantle the statue of the Blessed Mother from a truck with a chimney in front of the newly renovated Our Lady of the Angels Mission Outreach Center in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. The statue of the Blessed Mother, which serves as a memorial to the victims of the 1958 chimney at the Notre-Dame des Anges school, where 92 children and three nuns died and many were injured, was blessed and installed in the extension center on Tuesday.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Leo Sorce was only thirteen years old when he was standing across the street watching the flames tear apart the school of Our Lady of the Angels in the winter of 1958.
He is surrounded by dozens of his classmates on the ground dying, if he is not dead, but he said that his inability for the main points of the carnage in front of him was a gift from God.
“My feeling is that we will have to remember, we will never forget,” Sorce, 77, said through tears. “We will have to honor our comrades and sisters who lost their lives. “
On Tuesday, a statue commemorating the victims of the fire at the Catholic school that killed 95 others and injured many more returned to the site after more than 20 years.
The statue of the Blessed Mother on display at Holy Family Church, 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd. , since 1999. He moved there after the closure of the parish school Notre-Dame des Anges.
He is now in charge of the newly renovated Mission Notre-Dame des Anges awareness center. The center is on the grounds of the former school building at 3814 W. Iowa St.
A procession of Chicago Fire Department fire trucks led the statue from Holy Family Church to the Mission Outreach Center of Our Lady of the Angels on Tuesday afternoon.
Members of the Chicago Fire Department bring the statue of the Blessed Mother to the newly renovated Our Lady of the Angels Mission Outreach Center in the Humboldt Park community tuesday afternoon, May 31, 2022. The statue of the Blessed Mother, which serves as a memorial to the victims of the 1958 fire at the Notre-Dame des Anges school, where 92 children and three nuns died and many were injured, was blessed and installed at the extension center on Tuesday.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A few dozen parishioners smiled as the chimney truck, with its howling sirens, turned toward Iowa Street with the statue hooked to the front of the truck. Some applauded while others held their cell phones to record their arrival.
Many love the statue commemorating the 92 primary school students and three nuns killed in the devastating chimney that devastated the Notre-Dame des Anges school in 1958. The chimney prompted stricter chimney protection codes across the country.
It took several men to separate the 400-pound marble statue and lift it on its 200-pound granite base, on which the names of the victims are inscribed.
Third graders near BVM Maternity School sang hymns at the ceremony, and once the statue was reassembled at its base, a student climbed a stepladder with the help of a firefighter to place a crown of roses on the statue’s head.
Cardinal Blase Cupich blessed the statue and led parishioners in prayer. He also said the fireplace had been the catalyst for many chimney prevention policies in Chicago, such as sprinkler systems, fireplace doors, and closed stairs.
As for Sorce, he said it was a bit of a bittersweet moment for him and many other survivors. He is pleased to see the statue at home but is saddened when he looks at the names of his former classmates.
Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich and Auxiliary Bishop Robert Lombardo, who is the founder and director of the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels, stand near the statue of the Blessed Mother she blesses at the Angels Outreach Center’s newly renovated Mission of Our Lady in the Humboldt Park community Tuesday afternoon.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times