The Islamic Community Center of Illinois (ICCI) is raising funds to purchase the former Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church and its convent in the Jefferson Park neighbourhood of Chicago, with plans to convert the 1.6-acre property into the first Islamic college-preparatory high school on the city’s North Side.

The effort has prompted controversy among some Catholics, who see the proposed sale as a painful symbol of declining Church vitality and the loss of a building long associated with Catholic life in the area.

The parish, founded in 1906, served Irish, Polish, German and other immigrant communities for more than a century. It held its final Mass in November 2021 under Cardinal Blase Cupich’s “Renew My Church” consolidation plan, amid falling attendance and demographic change. Parishioners appealed against the closure to the Vatican, without success.

The buildings were later deconsecrated, sacred statues, including a large image of the Blessed Mother, were relocated, and the property was listed for sale to support active parishes elsewhere.

The proposed sale carries symbolic weight for some Catholics. “Our Lady of Victory” recalls the 1571 Battle of Lepanto, where a Catholic naval coalition, invoking the rosary and the intercession of the Virgin Mary, defeated the Ottoman fleet. Some faithful view the potential transformation of the site into an Islamic school as a bitter reversal of that historic association.

The Catholic commentator Dr Taylor Marshall has criticised the development, asking why Catholic bishops continue to sell churches to Muslim groups and describing the pattern as deeply problematic in recent podcast and social media comments.

A Change.org petition entitled “Save Our Lady of Victory: Stop the Sale of Catholic Church to Non-Christian Group” has gained attention, with supporters urging the Archdiocese to prevent the transaction. Online reactions have ranged from heartbreak and calls for Catholics to raise funds to buy back the property, to stronger views that the building should be demolished rather than repurposed for Islamic use.

Critics have also raised theological concerns. While the Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium notes that Muslims adore the one merciful God, many traditional voices, including Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, stress fundamental differences between Christianity and Islam, including the Muslim rejection of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. For such critics, converting a former Catholic church into an Islamic educational centre represents more than a real estate transaction; it signals the loss of a distinctly Christian sacred space.

The ICCI, which already runs a pre-kindergarten to 8th-grade academy in a former church on Belmont Avenue, has described the proposed new high school as a “long-awaited milestone” combining academic rigour with Islamic formation. The project would require several million dollars for purchase and renovation, including prayer spaces. Nadig Newspapers first reported details of the fundraising drive in early June 2026.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has confirmed that the properties are on the market but has declined to comment on specific buyers or ongoing negotiations before any sale is finalised. As of June 25, 2026, no agreement has been reached.

LifeSiteNews reporter Emily Mangiaracina brought wider attention to the story on June 22, placing it within broader discussions of church closures, property stewardship and interfaith realities in a secularising West.

The episode follows similar cases in Buffalo and elsewhere, where closed Catholic churches have been sold to Muslim organisations and repurposed as mosques or schools.

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