Removal of beloved statue from shuttered church delayed

Police, workers and officials from the city’s Department of Buildings look at a replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta. The statue is inside the now-closed St. Adalbert Catholic Church in the Pilsen neighborhood, and protesters have been gathering to pray to halt the statue’s removal. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

A beloved statue, held inside a shuttered Pilsen church and at the heart of a fight between former parishioners and the Archdiocese of Chicago, was exposed for a few hours on Tuesday as crews prepared to move it to another church in the neighborhood.

The statue, a marble replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta, depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother, Mary, after the crucifixion. It has been in St. Adalbert Church in Pilsen for decades.