In Rome, people flocked to a square to see a new Pope. In Chicago, people are flocking to an underpass where they insist a miracle is taking place:
A steady stream of the faithful and the curious, many carrying flowers and candles, have flocked to an expressway underpass for a view of a yellow and white stain on a concrete wall that some believe is an image of the Virgin Mary.
“We believe it’s a miracle,” said Elbia Tello, 42, of Chicago. “We have faith, and we can see her face.”
Police have patrolled the emergency turnoff area under the Kennedy Expressway since Monday as hundreds of people have walked down to see the image and the growing memorial of flowers and candles that surround it. Beside the image is an artist’s rendering of the Virgin Mary embracing Pope John Paul II in a pose some see echoed in the stain.
Tuesday morning, women knelt with rosary beads behind a police barricade while men in work shirts stood solemnly before the image, praying. A police officer kept the crowd of about three dozen from getting too close to the traffic but didn’t stop them gathering around the stain.
The stain is likely the result of salt run-off, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The agency does not plan to scrub it off the wall.
“We’re treating this just like we treat any type of roadside memorial,” said IDOT spokesman Mike Claffey. “We have no plans to clean this site.”
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago had not received any requests to authenticate the image as of Monday, spokesman Jim Dwyer said.
“These things don’t happen every day,” Dwyer said. “Sometimes people ask us to look into it. Most of the time they don’t. (The meaning) depends on the individual who sees it. To them, it’s real. To them, it reaffirms their faith.”
Well, it’s better than the Virgin Mary’s image on a grilled cheese sandwich. I think there was was one of those on the onion bagel I ate. It gave me cramps.
QUESTION: Can an image on a Chicago underpass be the Virgin Mary’s?
ANSWER: No. There are no virgins in Chicago.
Note to my Chicago friends…especially to my BIG Chicago friends: The above is just an old joke. Heh, heh…heh?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.