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 legacy gift installed in 2004 by the beloved Father Jack Child to honor the memory of Cardinal John F. Dearden.

The Stolen Good Friday Sequence

Today, we should have heard the liturgical "voice" of the parish that has defined this day since the church was dedicated in 1937.

At Noon: The sequence begins with "The Angelus" (three sets of three strikes, followed by a nine-strike peal), immediately transitioning into the clear, sorrowful notes of "O Sacred Head, Surrounded" (the Passion Chorale).

12:00 PM – 2:59 PM: Between the hymns, the bells would strike the "De Profundis" (Out of the Depths) toll every 15 minutes, a somber reminder of the hours Christ hung on the Cross.

At 3:00 PM: The moment of Christ's death was marked by the Funeral Toll. The system would strike a single, deep, slow bass note repeated 33 times: one for each year of Christ’s life on earth.

Demographics as Destiny

When Mayor Hammoud was elected in 2021, the 2020 Census hadn't even acknowledged the reality yet. It was only after a revision of the 2020 Census that it was revealed Dearborn was already a majority-Muslim city. Today, the public schools have even shifted their menus to serve Halal food, and for the first time, the district is providing free Iftar meals for students to take home during Ramadan.

The Long Silencing: A Targeted Retreat

The 2023 shutdown was the final blow to a tradition spanning nearly nine decades, following years of retreat in the face of a continuous flow of Muslims into West Dearborn.

2010: Following multiple community complaints, the church was forced to eliminate the quarter-hour and half-hour chimes to comply with noise restrictions, silencing the neighborhood's clock.

2016: Further community pressure restricted the bells to a strict 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM schedule, ending the evening Angelus.

2023: Total silence. As far as we know, the system was working perfectly fine when it was stopped; all that has to happen is for someone to turn it back on.

The Blatant Double Standard

Father Child’s gift was only 19 years old when it was turned off. A high-end Verdin system is built for 40 to 50 years; it didn't die. It was silenced because of pressure from the new majority. We see the influence of the million-dollar mansions just a few blocks away; homes that didn't used to be there, where residents pay $8,000 a month in property taxes. It is assumed these are the voices demanding the "noise" be stopped.

Meanwhile, in East Dearborn, mosques use paging systems 40 years old (distorted and pushed past their operational life) to broadcast the Adhan. For over two years, resident Andrea Unger has been documenting this double standard, bringing recordings of broadcasts exceeding 70 decibels to nearly every City Council meeting. Each time, she is blown off. Police Chief Issa Shahin has confirmed the mosques are broadcasting but claims recent measurements show no violations. Under Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Muslim Police Chief, and a majority-Muslim City Council (including President Michael Sareini, Pro Tem Mustapha Hammoud, and Kamal Alsawafy), the noise ordinances are ignored for the mosques while the Catholic bells remain dead.

The Spiritual Void

This isn't just about noise; it's a fundamental theological clash. In the Catholic tradition, bells are washed in holy water, anointed with Chrism, and consecrated to drive out darkness and keep demons away from the parish. The Church has officially ruled that these electronic systems, when blessed and prayed over, carry the same spiritual authority as physical bronze. They are sacramentals designed to "cause the powers of the air to tremble" and drive far away the power of those lying in wait. Conversely, the Islamic Hadith (Sahih Muslim 2114) explicitly states: "The bell is the musical instrument of Satan."

By turning off a consecrated liturgical instrument, Sacred Heart has removed our spiritual shield. In a time where domestic terrorism has claimed the life of Charlie Kirk and seen multiple attempts on President Trump, we need that protection more than ever. The equipment didn't fail; the will to keep broadcasting did. By choosing silence, they have surrendered the literal air to demons, leaving all of us in West Dearborn without the spiritual shield of consecrated bell recordings played out hourly throughout the day to ward off demonic forces.