History

It was during the period from 1885 through 1905 that the beginnings of overall cemetery administration began to develop. The very first Catholic cemetery official was Mr. John Murphy, the first superintendent of Calvary Cemetery. However, as each of the cemetery groups began to develop additional cemeteries, the need was recognized for overall coordination of activities, rather than a series of unconnected individually operated cemeteries. Three major groupings of cemeteries now had taken shape. The German Catholic cemeteries, the Polish Catholic cemeteries, and the so-called diocesan cemeteries representing the balance of the Catholic population were in place. The German cemeteries received their supervision from the rector of Angel Guardian Orphanage and were particularly well served by Rev. George Eisenbacher. He came on the scene shortly after the turn of the century and managed the affairs of the cemeteries for fifty years. He was succeeded by Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Hillinger, and later by Rev. Msgr. Leo Diebold. The Polish cemeteries handled the matter of cemetery administration by the establishment of a board made up of pastors of the Polish parishes, one of whom acted as an "executive director" for the cemeteries. This role was ably performed over some fifty years by four priests: Rev. Adalbert Furman, Rev. Msgr. Thomas Bona, Rev. Msgr. John Zelezinski, and Rev. Msgr. Edward Plawinski. Concurrently, the diocesan cemeteries also created a supervising position, held by Mr. Daniel Kinsella until his death in 1919, and by his successors until the creation of the first archdiocesan director of cemeteries in 1931.

In the first seventy-five years of cemetery administration, other than the necessary ecclesiastical regulation, cemetery operation and management was primarily laissez faire. While cemeteries retained a number of controls in their various deeds and easements, they limited themselves for the most part to the Herculean task of developing fast enough to accommodate the population avalanche, and making burials at a time when only manual and animal labor were available. Considering the operating limitations, the volume of burials to be handled verged on the incredible. During the great influenza epidemic of World War I as many as seventy-five victims a day were being buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery alone. Under these circumstances, care of graves was often left to individual families, and matters of memorialization and landscaping were generally left to the discretion of the lot holder. While a wide variety of monuments created picturesque images of cemeteries, controls were minimal, and their lack was most felt in the areas of maintenance. The first coordinated efforts at planned maintenance involved the establishment of annual care charges. Under this arrangement the cemeteries would perform certain maintenance on the subscriber’s lot. In those times, graves were purchased without any provision for care. It was expected that the families would perform this function or have someone else do it. The annual care concept was some help in alleviating the problem of maintenance, but it left only parts of the cemetery cared for. The necessity of an organized program for cemetery care and the establishment and careful financial management of a care fund became evident in later years.

While the absence of succeeding generations or the moving away of families caused some problems, in general there was a surprising continuity in family ties and family use down through the years. For example, one hundred years after St. Boniface Cemetery was established, one-third of the burials were still going into family lots that had been purchased in the first twenty years of the cemetery’s existence, and this pattern held true for nearly all of the older cemeteries.

The years of the Great Depression and World War II affected the running of cemeteries as it did everything else. Other than basic work and minimal development, progress was stifled because of economic limitations. There were two significant events during those otherwise slow years. The first archdiocesan director of cemeteries was appointed, with direct supervisory authority over the so-called diocesan cemeteries, and general policy supervision over all Catholic cemeteries. To this post Cardinal Mundelein named Rev. Samuel Lucey who served in this position from 1931 to 1934. In 1943 the cemetery workers were organized by the Service Employees International Union, becoming the first church employees to be unionized.

The most dramatic changes in cemetery management and operations took place after World War II. The chief architect of those changes was Rev. William Casey, who became archdiocesan director of cemeteries in 1934 and served until his death in 1951. The size and scope of cemeteries had grown so considerably that Father Casey determined that there must be a concurrent growth in professional cemetery management. With the approval of Cardinal Stritch, Father Casey employed the first executive director for Catholic cemeteries, Mr. George J. Klupar, who served in that position until his retirement in 1963.

Under Father Casey, and his successor, Rev. Msgr. Francis McElligott, major changes took place. The central office of the cemeteries was expanded to provide overall management, handling financial, engineering, sales, and personnel matters. Mechanization of cemeteries proceeded quickly. Over a period of time, nearly three million dollars was invested in fleet equipment, and maintenance and interment procedures were improved, sharply reducing labor costs. This enabled prices to be held at reasonable levels. The hand digging of graves virtually disappeared in the 1950s and cemetery staffs were reduced to half of their former level.

The expansion of the Archdiocesan Cemeteries to include supervision and operation of many of the parish cemeteries also took place. Starting with St. Benedict Cemetery in 1953, the next twenty-five years saw nearly two dozen such cemeteries become part of the Archdiocesan Cemeteries. Each of these was initiated by the parish involved and was generally triggered by the great post-war suburban growth that turned rural parishes into suburbia, with greater responsibilities in provision of parish facilities, schools, and programs. Each parish cemetery under the archdiocesan organization operates with the same fee structure and services as the major cemeteries, and each is assigned for supervision to a major "parent" cemetery.

Chicago’s Catholic Cemeteries were also instrumental in the founding of the National Catholic Cemetery Conference in 1949. Father Casey was its first president as well as host of the initial convention of the conference. Space for the national office of the conference is provided in Hillside, Illinois at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleums.

In 1965, an amalgamation of all the various Catholic cemetery groups took place, important because it enabled unified planning for the first time, avoiding a duplication of effort and bringing a consistent and universally applicable set of prices, fees, operating policies, and regulations to all of Chicago’s Catholic cemeteries. The amalgamation was directed by Cardinal Meyer, influenced both by the practicality of the measure, as well as by the difficulty of having responsibility in all matters affecting cemeteries without having effective unified control over cemeteries.

After the death of Cardinal Meyer, the consolidation effort was carried through by Cardinal Cody. The Cardinal confirmed the appointment of Mr. John Philbin as executive director of the consolidated operation. Mr. Philbin served in this position until the end of July, 1983 when he accepted a position as Director of Financial Services for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

His successor, Donald A. Massaro, was appointed in January of 1984 as Executive Director under Msgr. Patrick J. Pollard who was to be the new Archdiocesan Director upon Msgr. McElligotts' retirement. In 2001, Mr. Roman Szabelski was named Executive Director of Catholic Cemeteries by Francis Cardinal George.