1969 Fr. Patrick X. Nidorf, an Augustinian priest and psychologist, formed a group of, “Catholic gay people”. 1971 Mary Houlihan of the Legion of Mary receives permission from Cardinal Cody to sponsor a Mass for the GLBT community.

In November 1971 five people met with Father Max, Cardinal Cody's liaison to Chicago's gay and lesbian community to discuss the possibility of forming a Chicago chapter of a new national organization of gay and lesbian Catholics called Dignity.

You must remember that even though Stonewall had happened in 1969 and a ray a hope was created by those brave actions in New York City, that was NYC and this was Chicago, and things were different then.

Dignity/Chicago had about 180 members and an even larger turnout for its Sunday evening Mass. Commonweal, a moderate lay-edited Catholic magazine, chided Dignity/Chicago for not cooperating with Cardinal Bernadin.