Cherished memories
Comments (...)Most of Ladd’s precious Catholic church was demolished a week ago, with the final collapse of the bell tower happening just this past Wednesday morning. For parishioners of St. Benedict’s family, it was a sad experience, as many watched their sacred church home tumble to the ground. For others, the process was just too painful to watch.
While I’ve followed the decisions of the Peoria Diocese regarding St. Benedict’s and other Catholic churches in the area, this column is not about those decisions and whether I believe they were right or wrong.
Built in 1930 and serving 195 families at the time Bishop Daniel Jenky made the decision to close the church — primarily because of financial concerns and a decrease in parish families, the stoic old building was still home to many residents of Ladd and beyond. Countless souls were born into the church, worshiped there, married there and ultimately died there. It was their home — a holy place that will always live in their hearts.
That being said you can understand while some parishioners stopped by the church to get a brick or two from the demolished structure. You can also understand their horror when they discovered some of their sacred elements amidst the rubble.
“My mom and I drove past and stopped to look. And what do I see blowing in the wind? A Bible,” said Randi Lind of Spring Valley, a former St. Benedict’s parishioner who was raised in the church.
And that’s not all that was discovered between the bricks and mortar on the ground ... A glass candle holder with Jesus’ picture; a dozen hymnals — some with sheet music inside written in Latin; banners depicting Jesus that used to hang near the altar; a green garment with gold stitching that a priest would have worn to preside over a Mass; more Bibles; other books ....
“The whole time I just wanted to break down and cry. You’re always taught from the time you are a little kid that the church is the most holy place of all,” Lind said. “I don’t care that it was just paper and fabric, it was still part of our church. It’s still part of our faith. We were taught that everything in the church was holy. You were supposed to treat everything and everyone with respect. But they were just going to throw it out like it didn’t matter.”
Well, it does matter. It matters to Lind, and quite frankly, it matters to me too. No, I’m not a good Catholic. I was raised in the Lutheran church, and I’m not proud to admit that I’m not a good Lutheran either. But regardless of one’s religious connections, this is just wrong, and the idea of sacred items being left behind made me angry, sad and especially hurt for the people of St. Benedict’s.
But then I spoke with the Peoria Diocese’s Monsignor Stanley Deptula, the director of divine worship who was the administrator of St. Benedict’s. Deptula told me he was personally responsible for cleaning out the church.
“This disturbs me too,” he said. “If anything was left behind, it was a complete oversight.” Deptula further explained the church was cleaned out after the electricity had been turned off. Though Deptula and his crew clearly thought they had removed all sacred items, he admits those items must have been missed, especially since they were working in the dark. “I would deeply regret anything sacred should be tossed aside ... My heart breaks for the people of Ladd,” he said.
An accident ... an honest oversight ... a simple mistake. I appreciate Deptula’s honesty, his integrity. It would have been easy to shift the blame to someone else, but instead, he took full responsibility for the situation.
So why write this column? I just want the parishioners of Ladd to know the items from their precious St. Benedict’s were not intentionally left behind. Losing the church must be like losing an old friend. May you hold your memories close to your heart.
BCR Editor Terri Simon can be reached at tsimon@bcrnews.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bcrnews.tsimon.
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