ILLINOIS
Patch
By Shannon Antinori (Patch Staff)
February 2, 2015
A shuttered downtown Joliet church could get a new life as a restaurant, Mayor Tom Giarrante said last week.
A developer has secured funding to purchase St. Mary Carmelite Church, 113 N. Ottawa St., and its rectory, Giarrante said.
While neither Giarrante nor Community and Economic Development Director Jim Haller would identify the developer, both said plans call for a restaurant in the historic limestone church and apartments in the rectory. …
In 2010, the church gained notoriety as the site of a suicide attempt by the Rev. Alejandro Flores, a Diocese of Joliet priest facing child sexual abuse allegations. Flores, who was seriously injured after jumping from the church’s choir loft, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual assault and was deported to his native Bolivia in 2013.
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