February 9, 2017

Sunday Mass at Mercy Home has reached an important milestone: 25 years of being celebrated at our Home and broadcast to homebound Catholics throughout Chicagoland.

In 1992, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin requested that Mercy Home for Boys & Girls begin hosting and producing a weekly Catholic Mass. Today, 25 years later, it reaches over 60,000 of faithful viewers every Sunday morning.

Sunday Mass at Mercy Home serves the Catholic faithful who are unable to leave their homes for Mass, due to age or illness. It provides a loving church community and Sunday worship for those unable to experience it elsewhere. Each month, a Mass guide is sent out so that the viewers can follow along from home.

“Sunday Mass at Mercy Home has been one of the wonderful ministries we provide to the Archdiocese and beyond,” Fr. Scott said.

Sunday Mass is filmed right at our West Loop Campus in the Our Lady of Mercy Chapel, and is broadcast on WGN-TV. Each celebration involves many members of our Mercy Home family—even the boys and girls in our care. Our young people participate as altar servers, a new way for many of them to engage in their faith.

In addition to acting as a celebrant himself, Fr. Scott has invited many priests to serve as celebrants at Sunday Mass over the years. Current celebrants include Very Rev. Gregory Sakowicz, Fr. Tom Baldonieri, Fr. Carl Morello, and Fr. Jason Malave.

Sunday Mass is kept on the air by generous donations from both viewers and friends of the Home.

“It is a prayer partnership where [the viewers] pray for us and for the children at the Home and we pray for [them],” Fr. Scott explained.