Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Nauvoo

Pilgrims seeking to pass through designated Holy Doors of Mercy in the Diocese of Peoria will soon have a seventh local option.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, has named Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Nauvoo as an official Mercy Door and pilgrimage site for the Holy Year of Mercy.

The Holy Door at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, 190 N. Wells St., will be blessed prior to the 8 a.m. Mass on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 10.

The designation gives Catholics living in the southwest region of the Diocese of Peoria a closer pilgrimage location. In his 2016 Festival Letter “Divine Mercy,” released as the Holy Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis opened on Dec. 8, Bishop Jenky designated the following churches and chapels as pilgrimage sites:

• St. John’s Catholic Chapel at the University of Illinois, Champaign;
• the Shrine Church of the Most Holy Rosary, LaSalle;
• St. Robert Bellarmine Chapel at St. John Paul II Catholic Newman Center, Normal;
• St. Mary’s Cathedral and Sacred Heart Church, Peoria, and
• St. Pius X Church, Rock Island.

In a Jan. 13 letter to Father Tony Trosley, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Nauvoo, Bishop Jenky noted that pilgrimage sites are being asked to host regional celebrations on Divine Mercy Sunday, which this year is April 3. He asked parish leaders throughout the Holy Year to “invite people to a transforming experience of the love of God through confessions, adoration, Holy Mass and silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.”

Father Trosley also serves as pastor of Sacred Heart in Dallas City, Immaculate Conception in Carthage, Sacred Heart in Warsaw, and St. Mary in Hamilton.