Priest who served Chicago, Quincy moves closer to sainthood
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A priest who served in Chicago and western Illinois in the late 1800s is a step closer to becoming a saint.
Father Augustus Tolton was the first African-American priest in the U.S.
WGEM-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2hsjKgW ) his remains were exhumed from St. Peter's Cemetery in Quincy on Saturday. They will be examined for historical verification purposes.
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Bishop John Paprocki of the Springfield Diocese was at the cemetery Saturday. He says having someone from the local area become a saint and show others how to be Christian is "a great thing."
Tolton was born a slave in 1854. His family escaped to Illinois, where he was a priest in Quincy and Chicago. He died in 1897.
The late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago submitted Tolton as a candidate for sainthood in 2010.
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Information from: WGEM-AM.