THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2008

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Alexian Dedicates Newly-Relocated Chapel

A dedication ceremony which included Francis Cardinal George, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Elk Grove Mayor Craig Johnson was held Thursday, Feb. 28, to officially re-open the new chapel inside Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village. The chapel had to be moved due to expansion of the hospital. Local officials and worshipers gathered Thursday to dedicate the new Maddalena and Charles Pastika Memorial Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.

During construction, the chapel had to be dismantled and relocated piece-by-piece to its new location. That included moving thousands of individual pieces of a 300-year-old European stained glass windows.

"It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle," said Brother Valentino Bianco, facility designer. The chapel was originally opened as a small place for reflection but has grown into a parish of its own with as many as 100 people packing the chapel for daily services.