Welcome!

Our welcoming Christian community of St. Irenaeus Parish inspired by the words of our patron - "Humankind fully alive is God truly glorified" - journeys together to bring the love of Christ to all in our parish family through worship, faith formation, social justice, and loving service while reaching out to the broader community.

34th Annual Hunger Walk

For all who may be interested! We need as many people to sign up or donate to the 34th Annual Hunger Walk hosted by the greater Chicago Food Depository. This event will take place on Saturday, September 7, 2019.

Please sign up or donate specifically to Team St. Irenaeus/Catholic Charities A01470. That last number is our Agency number and you can search for our team by those numbers as well. Please reference the A01470 number in any donations made.

For every Hunger Walk participant signed up our pantry here in Park Forest Illinois will receive a $12 credit and for every $500 donated we will receive $100 match from the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Our pantry here services 9 ZIP codes in total and feeds on average of 500 people weekly. In our last calendar year alone we distributed nearly 200,000 meals to the most vulnerable among us. This is truly a great cause and all help is greatly appreciated.

The first link is a direct link to our donation page for the Hunger walk and the second is a link to the Hunger Walk itself. Please plan to join us or make a donation if you are unable to make it.

https://www.classy.org/team/245572 (Donate or Register to Walk)

https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/hunger-walk/(Main Event Page)

Immigration Resources

Cardinal Blase Cupich Immigration Letter 7/14/2019 - Click here to download

Immigration Resources Addendum - Click here to download

Video is from the presentation, Climate Change: The Issues, the Consequences, the Challenges, sponsored by the Park Forest People of Faith, held at St. Irenaeus Church on Sunday, June 23, 2019. Keynote speaker: WGN-TV/Channel 9 Meteorologist, Tom Skilling

PANTRY NEWS

We always have more requests for help from our pantry guests than we have donors. We’ve a great idea to make the sponsorship work for all. Would you like to help provide a meal for one of the families who come to our pantry? Our average family size is four, and we have many families with 7 or more children.

Many people struggle every week to find the resources to prepare nutritious balanced meals for the family table. Often there’s nothing extra after holiday season ends to prepare the kinds of daily meals so many of us take for granted. A Scrip card from Target, Walmart, Jewel or Meijer could help make their days brighter by allowing them to choose the food items for their families..

If you want to help, please consider purchasing a Scrip card through the weekly program here at St. Irenaeus and drop your card(s) into the box that will be provided before and after every Mass. Our families will gladly use the cards to buy the ingredients for favorite traditional dishes, desserts or perhaps diapers for the baby or bathroom tissue or other essentials. The need is huge.

Thanks for all your prayers and donations of food and money for the pantry program. We couldn’t do this without each of your contributions!!