ILLINOIS
Oak Leaves
BY JOHN P. KELLY
STAFF WRITER
Sundays, for the vast majority of Chicagoland Roman Catholics, are spent anywhere but in a church.
It's not a new trend. Only about one in five of the 2.3 million Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago -- and that number is down 5 percent since 1990 -- attend Mass.
Rev. Robert Barron has been asked to change this.
Cardinal Francis George approached the 46-year-old theology professor at University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein last November and said he wanted Barron to "jump-start evangelization."
In the country's third largest Catholic archdiocese that's no small chore, especially as the church's image in the Chicago area has been further marred by new accusations of sexually abusive priests.