Suburban Nuns Oppose Plan To Build Strip Club Next Door (VIDEO)

A group of nuns in Chicago's west suburban "sin city" have stepped up their opposition to a "gentlemen's cabaret" -- or strip club -- slated to be opened next door to their convent.

As the Better Government Association and Fox Chicago report, a showdown between the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo (Scalabrinians) and the developers behind Get It, a strip club that will feature partially nude performers and serve alcohol, is underway in Stone Park, Ill -- a village with a festering shady reputation.

(Scroll down to watch a report on the controversially located strip club.

Sister Marissonia Daltoe of the convent told CBS Chicago that she is concerned with how the new strip club, already approved by the village board and under construction in the 3800 block of West Lake Street, will impact neighborhood youth. And she argues that her convent never had the proper opportunity to speak out against the club before it was approved by the village.

"There are plenty of problems in the area, and we don't want to have another one," Daltoe explained to CBS.

According to the BGA, the strip club is being built within two feet of the nuns' fence line. The nuns' property extends across both Stone Park and the more conservative Melrose Park, whose mayor Ronald Serpico has entered the battle as an ally to the convent. Stone Park Mayor Beniamino Mazzulla, also, isn't fond of the strip club coming to his village, but feels his hands are tied on the matter legally.

As "a very devout Roman Catholic," Servico is, according to his spokesman Gary Mack, "look[ing] into this to see if there's anything we can do to block this thing."

While the strip club's owner Bob Itzkow said he does not necessarily welcome a lawsuit, he realizes that should it occur, his club would probably benefit from the extra publicity a suit would provide.

Another strip club -- called Scores -- is reportedly located just down the street from the site where Get It is currently being erected.

The tiny suburban village has a shady reputation, dating back decades, of being heavily mob-influenced. According to the Chicago Tribune, the village's former police chief, Harry Testa, reportedly shared in monthly payoffs from bars with then-police lieutenant Seymour Sapoznik in exchange for looking the other way when it came to illegal gambling.

The village's mob boss, Rocco Pranno, also reportedly pressured the village's businesses to contract with certain vending machine companies in the 1960s, according to the Tribune, and the town also formerly played host to a Capone-owned brewery during the Prohibition era.

WATCH Fox Chicago's report on the controversy in Stone Park:

Strip Club Allowed to Open Next to St. Charles Borromeo Convent: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Comments

[bradyhull]

09:45 AM on 02/17/2012

cont...

It is a very difficult topic to deal with but not every business can set up in LAS VEGAS...THE HELL/EVIL ON EARTH! I mean look VEGAS(NEVADA) is side by side to UTAH (SALT LAKE). One the DEVIL STATE and the other THE HEAVEN STATE..go figure!

Thus the classical battle and beliefs.....HEAVEN AND HELL....on EARTH....ha ha ha.

[bradyhull]

09:44 AM on 02/17/2012

LOOK PEOPLE....The striptease club is opened when? AT NIGHT!!! Are these nuns there during that time? I think not. Do they live at this convent 24/7? That is the question. During the early hours of the morning, the place will be closed. This is when the nuns do their work...THE DAYTIME! I understand their feelings on this though. It is rough all over. But people need to make a living and if the location is ripe for employment...hey, the economy RULES.

LOOK AT THIS FROM THE OTHER SIDE...What about all these churches, crosses and such built all over the WORLD in which people think that they are infringing on their way of life. Not everyone believes in the church (ASK BILL MAHER), and believe these people have got a free ride for CENTURIES (meaning way too long)! What about the children who go to school and must hear, GOD THIS AND GOD THAT and their familes are atheist? No one ever gives them the time of day to be heard.

Due to the fact that these are women, a special treatment and sense of feeling goes out to them and I do feel them. I really do.

[Sal de la Cerda]

03:20 PM on 02/13/2012

why would anyone go as far as to build a freaking strip club next to where Nuns live?? that is a total Disrespect to these Laddies! I feel that these people just didnt give a Rats Axx what the Nuns would of felt about this place!! and they were maybe turned down from building this place somewere el's? even though this place would be a great help on taxes........?bring more money in to the city! But if I were the guy I would not build it next to a Nuns home!!!!! it's Disrespectful to them aswell as to God!

[priceofliberty]

03:06 PM on 02/13/2012

Really? I gave the nuns props for fighting the bishops on health care. Now they are back to fighting sex.

Quit ignoring greed please.

[Andrew Wood]

08:08 PM on 02/12/2012

"Scores, is reportedly located just down the street from the site where Get It is currently being erected." - Lol You know this phrasing had to be intentional ;)

[Peace Walker]

05:21 PM on 02/12/2012

The only objection I would have would be the "oofta oofta oofta" of the bass beat rumbling through my bedroom when I am trying to sleep. There needs to be a buffer zone between residential and commercial areas.

[rustyslingblade]

10:38 AM on 02/12/2012

Most of you fine upstanding men who don't object to this I bet you will never take your wife in with you. You will sneak in the dark, and if this place is not that bad why don't you take your legal age daughter their and sign her up to work their? Because you know what goes on inside this type of place! And you wonder why so many women are getting molested and raped. It’s not a” gentlemen’s club”, it’s a perverts club for men who don’t respect women! I hold a higher opinion of women and feel they should be respected and treated with class and dignity.

[Jradxit]

08:03 PM on 02/11/2012

I just thank FSM there's no nunnery going up in my neighborhood. Just look what they've done to Stone Park.

[Rusty Bucket]

03:45 PM on 02/11/2012

Maybe in the spirit of good neighborliness the girls at the strip club could put on a tribute to the convent. Call it say “The Stripping Nuns!” The girls could don habits and do a routine for their neighbors. And everything could stay all friendly!

[Warren Harrison]

01:43 PM on 02/11/2012

Everyone has the right to choose what path they want to take in life. Ministers and Priests 30 and 40 years ago, warned this would be the kind of battles the Church would involve themselves in, if they did not stick to the fundamentals of Christian Faith. Nobody listened, so the nation today is seen as being in spiritual decline and the interest today is not for the spiritual well-being of the American Populace, but only what the eye beholds. Christ had no problem with Mary Magdalene or prostitution, or walking into a house of a sinner. He saw the human side of life,
and welcomed it.

[GretchenMann]

07:33 PM on 02/11/2012

It's interesting that you mentioned Mary Magdalene as being a prostitute. The Bible does not describe her as one, though it does suggest she was the most important woman disciple of Jesus. It was good old Pope Gregory who labeled her as a prostitute because somehow Jesus was supposed to have exorcised demons from her. The Pope decided that she must have been a sinful woman and therefore had to be a prostitute. You see, even prior to the Middle Ages, men (and women) of the church were obsessed by sex. Apparently they still are.

[Warren Harrison]

11:05 PM on 02/11/2012

Thanks for the great comment. I have often said, If you believe in the judgment seat of Christ, He is not going to ask about your neighbors sexual escapades, he is going to ask about you.

[92102]

11:24 AM on 02/11/2012

When churches, etc. start paying property taxes they can have a voice in what types of businesses move in next door. Until then, suck it up.

[Spock]

10:29 AM on 02/11/2012

Leave the strip club alone!!!

[maxout22]

08:39 AM on 02/11/2012

At least the strip club pays taxes.

[GretchenMann]

07:33 PM on 02/11/2012

Oh maxout22..... you have just become my favorite person!

[slimdave420]

08:20 AM on 02/11/2012

Anybody remember that old joke where the new sister asks the mother superior "what's the special?" and she replies "about $50."

[edwardandersons]

01:07 AM on 02/11/2012

I think its horrible; if I was the nuns I would go in and talk to the girls to make them feel bad for being in such a career choice. The nuns should also greet people outside to make them feel guilty for going inside...hehe

[KrautMan]

06:41 AM on 02/11/2012

Umm, a nun isn't exactly the best spokesperson in the area of career choices.

[leftgranma]

11:18 AM on 02/11/2012

A nun picket line would be just the ticket. If I wanted to go to a strip club I know I could never do it in front of Sister Mary Inviolata. Back in the day I could barely breathe if Sister Mary Inviolata was looking at me.