VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI will focus on religious freedom’s contribution to peace in his World Peace Day message for 2011, the Vatican said. The theme the pope has chosen for the Jan. 1 celebration is “Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace,” the Vatican announced July 13. The Vatican said the pope intends […]
Continue readingLONDON (CNS) — The largest Anglo-Catholic group in the Church of England is expecting an exodus of thousands of Anglicans to Catholicism after a decision to ordain women as bishops without sufficient concessions to traditionalists. Stephen Parkinson, director of Forward in Faith — a group that has about 10,000 members, including more than 1,000 clergy […]
Continue readingROCK ISLAND — A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Wednesday, July 7, in the chapel of St. Mary Monastery for Sister Marilyn (Mary Mark) Hettinger, OSB, a former prioress and longtime educator, who also had served as associate director of religious education for the Diocese of Peoria. Burial followed at Calvary Cemetery, also […]
Continue readingBy: By Sister Rachel Bergschneider, OSB Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 11 Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Psalm 69:14,17,30-31,33-34,36,37; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37; Luke 10:25-37 Yet again, Jesus is the great storyteller in today’s Gospel. When met by the young man who is intent on following God but knows only how to understand that call in the […]
Continue readingJesus experienced incredible suffering before he was laid in the tomb, but his story didn’t end there and neither can the stories of persons who have lost a spouse through death or divorce, according to Vince Frese, vice president of Journey of Hope Productions. In keynote sessions at the first-ever Diocesan Conference for the Widowed […]
Continue readingSTREATOR — A funeral Mass was offered at St. Anthony of Padua Church here on Thursday, July 8, for Father Francis “Frank” Joseph Ryan, 83, a Streator native and priest of the Diocese of Peoria for 52 years. Father Ryan, a senior priest and pastor emeritus of St. Paul’s Parish in Odell — where he […]
Continue readingCHAMPAIGN — Curtis Martin likes everything about St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois, from the hospitality of Msgr. Gregory Ketcham, chaplain, and his staff to the beauty of the chapel. “The facilities are second to none,” said the founder and president of FOCUS — the Fellowship of Catholic University Students — […]
Continue readingThere are open houses, and then there is the opportunity to roam through the largest building project in the long history of the city of Peoria. Curiosity about the scope of the “Milestone Project” alone should be enough to bring thousands out to see the new Children’s Hospital of Illinois and OSF Saint Francis Medical […]
Continue readingBy: By Jennifer Willems DANVILLE — Those who attended a day of reflection that was sponsored by the Peoria Diocesan Council of Catholic Women and hosted by St. Paul’s Church had some sobering thoughts to take into Mass and adoration on June 30. The theme for the day focused on end-of-life issues and care for […]
Continue readingBy: By Jennifer Willems CHAMPAIGN — Traveling and writing are all in a day’s ministry for Sister Agnes Cunningham, SSCM. A patristics scholar who was one of the first women theologians to teach at Mundelein Seminary, the major seminary of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Sister Agnes has often found herself flying for committee work, to […]
Continue reading
