(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Chicago was booming in 1958.

It was the world's busiest steel and rail center, the nation's leading industrial bread basket and livestock area.

Mayor Richard J. Daley launched an ambitious plan to rebuild Chicago's downtown.

- There is a huge amount of of energy going on in the city.

A lot of things are happening.

The population hits a high water mark, it's over 3 million.

- [Narrator] Nearly 2 million were Roman Catholic, making the Archdiocese of Chicago the largest in the country.

It guided a collection of 262 parishes, each covering one square mile of the city.

- Chicago has been called a city of neighborhoods, but it's also a city of parishes.

People knew where you were from by what parish you belonged to.

- [Narrator] One of Chicago's most vibrant parishes flourished on the city's west side, Our Lady of the Angels.

(gentle music) - They'd ask you where you're from and you'd say, "Our Lady of the Angels."

- It was a close-knit parish.

You'd walk down the street and the people would say hello.

- I remember playing at midnight and all the neighbors would watch each other.

(gentle music continues) - Everybody knew each other.

People helped each other.

- [Matt Plovanich] It was absolute home for us.

(gentle music continues) (children laughing) - [Narrator] Our Lady of the Angels opened in 1894 to serve the neighborhood's Irish Catholics.

But by 1958, the parish was largely Italian.

- I didn't know what a blonde-haired person looked like until I moved outta that neighborhood, I'd see 'em on TV but- - Typical Catholic Chicago, everything was parish oriented and you felt a sense of belonging.

- [Narrator] Serge Uccetta's family immigrated from a small Italian town near Trieste after World War II.

They settled three blocks from the church and felt right at home.

- [Serge Uccetta] Sundays were busy.

Our Lady of the Angels Church had masses every hour.

They were packed.

If you didn't get there early, you didn't get a seat.

You had to stand.

- [Narrator] You could smell the pasta sauce strolling down the block after church.

- [Serge Uccetta] Sunday afternoons were largely family get togethers.

That was the feast of the day.

- [Narrator] Even Carlos Lozano's family, one of the few Mexican households in the parish, picked up the custom.

- We tried to eat it like once a week.

You know, we'd ask our mom, you know, "You gonna make spaghetti today?"

- [Narrator] Families in this working-class area lived in bungalows and traditional two- and three-story apartment buildings.

(children shouting) - [Serge Uccetta] A lot of the moms and dads either worked in factories or in services trades.

- [Narrator] Luciana Mordini's family was literally fresh off the boat when they moved down the block.

- It was overwhelming.

I mean, I had never seen cars, I'd never seen buses and to walk out on Chicago Avenue and there were people everywhere.

- Chicago Avenue was comprised of a lot of shops, bakeries, some restaurants, but all Italian American.

- Oh my gosh, that was heaven to us.

Everything we needed was there.

Our favorite bakery was Ancona Bakery.

They made the best Italian bread.

- [Serge Uccetta] There was the Alamo Theatre which was a great old-time Chicago movie theater.

- And if I did my chores and I got my quarter, I had money to go to the show then.

(laughs) - [Narrator] Jonathan Cain lived above an Italian deli and found artistic inspiration not at the movies but at church.

- I was in the choir and I really fell in love with the conversation in Latin with the priest, the way the priest would sing and we'd sing back to him.

I thought, God, I would love to do that.

- [Narrator] Kids could always count on a smile or a nickel from a young priest named Father Joe Ognibene.

- I loved Father Joe.

Loved Father Joe.

I still do.

(sighs) He was the nicest man.

- He could throw a football farther than any of us and the girls thought he was very handsome.

- [Narrator] While the church commanded Sundays.

activities shifted to classrooms on weekdays.

- [Kathleen Cummings] Catholic education was so important, particularly to immigrant Catholics.

- [Luciana Mordini] My American cousin took me to meet my new teacher and I'm standing in front of the room and I wet my pants right in front of the whole class.

So that was my introduction to Our Lady of Angels.

I did not speak English until probably the beginning of fifth grade.

The nuns spoiled me.

- [Narrator] The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were the foot soldiers of Chicago's parochial schools, dedicated to teaching and easy to spot in their long black habits.

- They taught in almost 40 schools.

I may be biased, but I would argue that the BVM sisters were some of the best teachers.

- [Narrator] But even the best teachers had their hands full after World War II when over 1,500 baby boomers swelled the school.

Some classrooms held up to 60 kids.

- We'd take turns sitting down during class and we'd have to get up, you know, and they'd say, okay, shift.

And then I'd get outta my seat and give my seat to somebody else.

And then we probably did that three times, four times a day.

- Uniforms were required.

We had to wear a tie.

- [Annette Danisi] Navy jumpers with white blouses, yeah.

- The nuns were strict at that time.

You had to do what they said.

I mean, you know, they came around with that ruler.

(laughs) - Their initials were BVMs, and we called them black-veiled monsters.

I know it sounds terrible, but they were... (laughs) But that was the worst thing we said about 'em.

That wasn't too bad, I think.

- [Narrator] Sisters did their best to educate children who weren't always angels.

- [Annette Danisi] The boys were bad.

I give those teachers a lot of credit.

- (laughs) I laugh because I guess I wasn't the, how should I, the most well-behaved.

- I happened to be really into rocket ships and astronomy.

So I would bring in my little plastic rocket ship.

I shot it off in class and almost broke the clock.

(laughs) - The nuns after school, they weren't going to their kids' soccer game.

We were their family, you know, they were very close to us.