What can we do?
To the Editor,
Because of the four suspended churches, St. Thomas More of Dalzell, St. Gertrude’s of Seatonville, St. Benedict’s of Ladd and Sts. Peter and Paul of Spring Valley, the parishioners of these churches are speaking out as to why the churches have been closed.
We, who have lost our churches, are questioning what the bishop of Peoria, the abbot of St. Bede and the priests themselves have done to answer the parishioners’ concerns as to why these churches have been suspended.
The Catholic church is sometimes under attack — as it should be if the situation warrants criticism — criticisms that should be aired.
Do we really need more priests? What we need is for some priests to work harder. Let’s increase the masses priests are able to preach, so they can serve other communities.
The Lord changed a pagan world to one that is predominately Christian, and he did this with only 11 apostles. Did the Lord register a complaint to his Father or place ads in newspapers and TV stations to state that he needed more apostles? No way. He went out and got people who believed in His message and solved the problem.
The parishioners of these churches are afraid these facilities can be sold to other non-Catholic religious facilities and/or to organizations that need to increase their physical plant.
No one was more supportive of these four churches than the laity of their towns who have given freely of their time and talent. They have worked their tails off by cleaning, cutting grass, painting, maintenance of the electrical and physical facilities along with the money-making projects such as salad bars, tortellini and sausage making, pies, cakes, etc., etc. in order to keep the church financially sound.
People in these churches are discouraged, demoralized, depressed and disheartened and wonder what they accomplished, after all their effort.
Years ago, only priests could dispense the Eucharist, and now we have Eucharistic ministers who help priests distribute communion to the homebound, to patients in hospitals, etc. I wrote to Cardinal George to see if he could increase the number of Masses a priest can say.
He wrote that he had no authority to intervene in pastoral decisions in other dioceses, as each bishop reports directly to the Holy Father through the Apostolic Nuncio in Washington, D.C. He did give me the Apostolic Nuncio’s address, and I have written to the Most Rev. Pietro Sambi to see what he can do to help in giving us a Mass during the weekend.
Read what St. Francis did in Assisi, and learn from him as to what we can do to keep our church in town.
Carlo Olivero
Dalzell
