Catholic Cemeteries Extend Hours For All Saints-All Souls Day

CHICAGO, IL – Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago will extend cemetery visitation hours until 6 p.m. at all their cemeteries on Nov. 1-2, in observance of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, respectively.

“Catholic Cemeteries wants to create more flexibility for families by extending our visitation hours,” said Roman Szabelski, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries. “Families will have the opportunity to honor their loved ones with a prayerful visit.”

All Catholic cemeteries will offer a Rosary and Prayer Service on Cemetery Sunday, Nov. 4 starting at 2 p.m. as a way for families and friends to come together and reflect on the passing of loved ones and the influence they had on their lives. The rosary and prayer service will take place in the interment chapels at the cemeteries.

In addition visitors will find the names of all those who have been buried within the cemetery from mid-October 2017 through mid-October 2018 memorialized on banners in each of the chapels. These banners will be displayed in the chapel during the recitation of the rosary and in the offices during the entire month of November.

Also, a "Memorial Remembrance Book" will be available in which visitors may write the names of their deceased loved ones and friends. After the prayer service, the book will be available on the counter in each of the offices throughout the coming year for visitors to enter any additional names they would like the archdiocese cemeteries to remember in their daily prayers. This book will then be carried in procession and placed on the altar at the field masses on Memorial Day.

The Catholic Cemeteries office manages 45 cemeteries within Cook and Lake Counties for the Archdiocese of Chicago. The first Catholic cemeteries were churchyard cemeteries of parishes in existence before the diocese was formed. Some of these cemeteries still operating today were Catholic burial grounds 25 years before the opening of Calvary Cemetery, the oldest diocesan cemetery, in 1859. More information about cemetery visitation hours and the Rosary and Prayer Service is available Catholic Cemeteries Chicago.

~ Photo by Patch Editor Lorraine Swanson