All altar servers in the Diocese of Peoria are invited to join Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, and others at St. Mary’s Cathedral for a 10:30 a.m. Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday, Sept. 20, celebrating both the universal “Year for Priests” and the 90th anniversary of the ordination of Fulton J. Sheen as a priest for our diocese.

The native of El Paso went on to become “one of the greatest priests of the last century” and an archbishop, noted Bishop Jenky, and his cause for sainthood is now being considered at the Vatican.

“However, before he was a famous speaker, writer, TV personality, and proposed ‘saint,’ he was an altar boy,” said Bishop Jenky of Archbishop Sheen in a letter sent this month to all pastors and coordinators of altar servers in the diocese. “Sheen himself would often reflect that the roots of his vocation could be traced back to our cathedral sanctuary.”

In inviting all Catholics to the diocesan celebration, Bishop Jenky issued a special call for the hundreds of young people who serve at Masses in parishes around the diocese to join him in the opening procession.
Servers should vest in their robes and be in the cathedral sacristy by 10:15 a.m.

Bishop Jenky explained that seating will be reserved for the families of altar servers, and that following Mass, a light luncheon will be served in the new Spalding Pastoral Center near the cathedral. Tours of the Sheen Museum will be available.

The bishop invited those wanting to learn more about Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the cause for his beatification to visit the Web site www.archbishopsheencause.org, or to call the Sheen Foundation at (309) 671-1550.