No Bells for Jesus Just Muslim Calls to Prayer
No Bells for Jesus Just Muslim Calls to Prayer By Robert Korczynski April 3, 2026 Good Friday As I sit here in West Dearborn, just a few blocks from Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Michigan Avenue and Military on Good Friday between Noon and 3:00 PM, something is missing. This is the sacred window: the Three Hours’ Agony. For over 85 years, Sacred Heart marked this time with a precise sequence of bells, and rang out the hour every day as a heartbeat for all of West Dearborn. But today, there is only silence. I just realized it has been three years since these bells were turned off. In May 2023, roughly a year after Mayor Abdullah Hammoud took office as the country’s first Muslim mayor of a Muslim majority city, the current pastor, Father Ken Chase, officially ended the tradition. He stated exactly in the parish bulletin: "The electronic carillon system that provided the sound of bells from our tower is now beyond its service life and has been turned off." This system was a le...