Muldoon: A True Chicago Ghost Story

"Father Leo then paused with a deep breath before going on. ‘There are many problems here, and some very strange things happen late at night that I just can’t explain.’ "Poverty. Crime. Politics. Scandal. Revenge. . . . And a Ghost.These are the untold stories of the last days of a forgotten Chicago parish by the last person able to tell them: Fresh out of the seminary in 1956, Father Rocco Facchini was appointed to his first assignment, the parish of Saint Charles Borromeo on the city’s Near West Side. Adapting to rectory life with an unorthodox, dispirited pastor and attending to the needs of the rough, impoverished neighborhood were challenges in themselves. Little did Rocco know that the rectory was being haunted by a bishop’s ghost!Muldoon: A True Chicago Ghost Story dives into Father Rocco’s four-year saga at Saint Charles, where his spiritual undertaking becomes a worldly adventure. His supporting cast includes a housekeeper inappropriately involved in her pastor’s affairs, and a genius–priest who carries a gun, thwarts neighborhood crime, and teaches Rocco about "loving the poor." And there’s the pastor himself. He padlocks the refrigerator, guides young priests only in the weekly ritual of Bingo, and entangles Rocco in the dirty work of a fraudulent shrine.As a backdrop to this chaos, the rectory experiences a host of supernatural manifestations, and Rocco discovers the legend of Bishop Peter J. Muldoon. Are there clues in this story of early stardom and great achievement, clerical competition and revenge, accusations and scandal, a missing ring, excommunication, and possibly murder that explain why the unexplainable is happening all around him?Upon delving into the church history, clerical politics, local folklore, neighborhood sociology, and paranormal activity of Muldoon, you, like Rocco, may be left wondering: Has he been kept alive to tell the story of Muldoon, clear the man’s name, and memorialize the bishop’s beloved and forgotten parish of St. Charles?

A first-time author in his early seventies, Rocco Facchini is a native Chicagoan, born to Italian immigrant parents, Gerardo and Maria. Poised for the religious life at an early age, Rocco attended Our Lady of the Angels school, Quigley Preparatory Seminary, and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary. Rocco was ordained on May 1, 1956 and served as a Chicago Diocesan priest for 15 years at St. Charles Borromeo, St. John Bosco, and Our Lady, Help of Christians parishes, before resigning from the priesthood in March 1971. As a layperson, Rocco first worked as a real estate broker and then as a Certified Property Manager for Wirtz Realty Corporation for 27 years. He married Della on July 4, 1972, and has two children, Daniel and David, who both collaborated with him on this book. Rocco continues to live in Chicago, and since his retirement in 1999, has begun writing about life as a priest, life as a dialysis patient, and the many eventful things and interesting people in his life.Rocco’s older son, Dan Facchini, has Bachelor’s Degrees in Economics and English from Northern Illinois University and a Master’s Degree in Public Service Management from DePaul University. Dan married Jodi in 2001. When not writing, he works as Development Director for Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (H.O.M.E.), is Chapter Advisor for Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity at Northern Illinois University, and plays rugby for the Chicago Griffins Rugby Club.A graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor’s Degree in Film and Animation, David Facchini is an artist living in Chicago. He juggles freelance animation, film, video, photography, illustration, set design, sculpting, screenwriting, acting, and improvisational theater. He has recently completed a short stop-motion animated film several years in the making, Vodka Monster, to be released in festivals in the summer of 2003.