Jesuit priest shot at during attempted catalytic converter theft: officials

A Jesuit priest was shot at but unharmed when he interrupted an attempted catalytic converter theft early Monday morning in Little Italy, authorities said.

St. Ignatius College Prep Communications Director Kristyn Hartman said the priest, Father Jeremiah Lynch, SJ, was up early at the Jesuit residence where he lives on the 1000 block of West Taylor Street Monday morning when he heard a sawing sound.

Lynch stuck his head out the door, saw two men trying to take a catalytic converter off a car and asked what they were doing, Hartman said.

Police said one of the men fired three shots in Lynch’s direction, hitting the building, before both fled.

“We are grateful he is OK,” Hartman said. “If you look at the door that caught the bullets it was right by where his head would have been.”

Lynch, 74, is a chaplain at the Cook County Jail, she said. Her understanding was that the shooting had not interrupted his work there.

“He said he was praying for the person who shot at him,” Hartman said.

Police said no one was in custody and that detectives were investigating the shooting.