Slice of Life: The Oriental Consistory

I admit it -- I had to look up the word "Consistory."  I still don't understand how it fits in to this phrase which adorns an arch at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on North Dearborn Street.  I checked the massive Encyclopedia of Chicago, but for some reason the tome has hardly any information on any churches in Chicago.  Not even Holy Name or Old Saint Patrick's warrant coverage in a book that's supposed to be encyclopedic.  I'm not sure how you can do a history of any American city without including something substantial about its faith community.

Slightly further off topic -- the park across the street from the Scottish Rite Cathedral is known by many as Washington Square Park.  But it used to be known as "Bughouse Square" and was named for the nearby mental hospital, or "bughouse" in the parlance of the time.