The following is taken from Friday’s (2-4-2013) Boone County Journal which is available free of cost at merchants across the county and on line at: http://www.boonecountyjournal.com/news/2013/Boone-County-News-02-01-13.pdf#page=1
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Weekly Collections for the weekend of January 27, 2013
Two Additional pledges; $10,380 additional pledged.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Archdiocese of Milwaukee says it's going broke - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports
By Amie Winters
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee says it wants a bankruptcy judge to allow it to suspend payments to attorneys and consultants. …..
The attorney for the bankruptcy creditors committee, James Stang, blames the archdiocese's cash flow problems on its aggressive efforts to throw out hundreds of sex abuse claims. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Stang says nearly $9 million in fees have been paid so far.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE BY CLICKING ON THE FOLLOWING: Archdiocese of Milwaukee says it's going broke - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports
Monday, January 28, 2013
Bishop snared in abuse scandal criticizes Catholic newspaper - latimes.com
The National Catholic Reporter has won awards for its investigative reporting and has been covering church sex scandals since 1985, National Catholic Reporter publisher and former editor Tom Fox told the Kansas City Star.
“We are a Catholic publication, but independent of the church structure. That’s one of the keys to our credibility," Fox told the Star, adding of Finn, "He’s hurting. I know he thinks he’s doing his job."
Sunday, January 27, 2013
13 to Watch in '13: Carmen Ocon a humble servant to her faith community - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
At St. James Catholic Church, that person is Carmen Ocon.
The 76-year-old provides extended care at St. James Catholic School, serves as a Spanish translator, distributes Communion to people who can’t get to Sunday liturgy, helps the priests and cleans the rectory.
Our View: Belvidere’s St. James expansion makes sense - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
This is from Sunday’s Rockford Register Star. How interesting is it that the Register Star is so ready to speak its opinion when many parishioners really don’t understand the new plans yet.
The future of St. James Catholic Church in Belvidere seems to be set with a plan to expand the church rather than build a new one.
During months of debate whether to build a new St. James downtown and tear down the historic church or build a new church on the edge of town on Squaw Prairie Road, parishioners agreed on one thing: the parish had outgrown its current building, which holds only 300 to 350 people.
Adding 500 seats and keeping the beautiful church is a winning scenario for parishioners and for Belvidere. This was a community issue as well as a parish issue because the church is so valued in downtown Belvidere.
St. James is the only Catholic church in Boone County and someday it may grow large enough that another church will need to be built on the 22-acre site at the western edge of town that was donated by a parish family in 1998.
But not today. Expanding St. James is a wise solution.
Our View: Belvidere’s St. James expansion makes sense - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
Here is the Rockford Register Star’s Opinion piece regarding the former building plan, September 3, 2011.Rockford Register Star’s View: Downtown location best for new Belvidere church The comments are from my posting on this website back in 2011.
Based upon the sparse coverage which Rockford Register Star has given to this issue, I find it incredible that the editors now publish “their” opinion. I find it annoying that no real issue such as height, size and parking are mentioned. Is smart growth building a “cathedral style” colossus in a residential neighborhood casting shadows upon its neighbors. Look at the words highlighted in green. Does the Register Star even know where the new church will be located?
It is interesting that perhaps for the first time, the Bishop through his Director of Communication speaks of his intention. I have highlighted that in yellow.
Mary Kaspar is the wife of Michael Kaspar, the paid bookkeeper of St. James Parish.
The following is taken from: http://www.rrstar.com/insight/x1413010381/Our-View-Downtown-location-best-for-new-Belvidere-church
When does a church issue become a community issue? We think Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton answered the question for us.
Brereton last week wrote a position paper on whether St. James Catholic Church should stay in downtown Belvidere and expand or build a new church on the edge of town on Squaw Prairie Road. He says the church staying downtown is a matter of smart growth and would be the best thing for the community. We agree.
While we’re uneasy about telling a church what to do, staying downtown appears to be the best thing for parishioners, too. In Belvidere, as in many urban communities, the growth is on the outskirts of town.
But downtown is where the need is. Churches, more than any other organization, should be about responding to need.
People in Belvidere are conflicted about St. James. One thing everyone agrees on, though, is the parish has outgrown its current building, which holds only 300 to 350 people.
Six services have to be held on Sundays to accommodate the crowds. The Spanish-speaking Masses are particularly popular; at those services, you can often find parishioners standing outside.
To even use the bathroom, parishioners have to leave the church and walk outside to another part of the building. Obviously, the situation is far from ideal for senior citizens as well as families with small children.
The Rockford Diocese, to which St. James belongs, has proposed a new church a few blocks away across from St. James School. It would accommodate about 850 people. St. James is the only Catholic church in Boone County.
Building the new church downtown at the proposed site requires the City Council to sign off on a zoning change from residential to institutional. The council will vote Tuesday, but the decision shouldn’t be difficult from a civic perspective.
The mayor has offered a strong argument for the rezoning through his position paper. He thinks the principles of smart growth make a downtown location the best choice for St. James. Smart growth goals include preserving open space and farmland, encouraging development where it already exists, and creating places people can walk to and not have to drive.
The 22-acre site at the western edge of town was donated by a parish family in 1998. The diocese “does not now have the intention to relocate the focus of the parish to the other property,” according to Penny Wiegert, the diocese’s director of communications.
“That would create more problems for the parish than it would solve.”
The church has much to celebrate. While other churches watch their congregations dwindle, St. James has a vibrant, committed, growing parish.
The fact so many people care about its fate is good news, not bad.
Much of the growth at St. James is in its Spanish-speaking and Hispanic parishioners. Many of these parishioners don’t have cars. They say it would be tough, if not impossible, to get to the Squaw Prairie site for regular worship.
Transportation is a consideration any community must take into account, but especially a church. Churches should be more committed than most organizations to providing for people of meager means.
As St. James parishioner Mary Kaspar wrote in the Register Star Aug. 19, “The bottom line is that we need a church where we can all worship God together.”
Building downtown is best for the bottom line.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Archdiocese of Milwaukee Heads Toward Insolvency - ABC News
Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski (top-CHES'-kee) says savings, reserves and investment earnings have all been exhausted. And if it doesn't stop paying attorneys and consultants, the archdiocese will be unable to pay its monthly operating expenses beginning in April.
Click on the following for more details: Archdiocese of Milwaukee Heads Toward Insolvency - ABC News
Friday, January 25, 2013
Will St. James’ “new” church plan have zoning obstacles?
The following are some of the zoning setbacks, landscaping, parking and structural requirements which the St. James church addition may have to meet. Some of the code requirements could be “grandfathered” because of the original building being older than the code however that interpretation as well as any variance from the code is the decision of the City of Belvidere.
The items highlighted as well as others on the second and third pages may be crucial.
Click on the photocopy to enlarge:
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Tony Flannery is threatened with excommunication. Association of Catholic Priests
Fr Flannery will be allowed back into ministry only if he writes, signs and publishes an article (pre-approved by the CDF) accepting the Catholic Church can never ordain women to the priesthood and accepting all Church stances on contraception, homosexuality, and the refusal of the sacraments to people in second relationships.
“I could not possibly put my name to such an article without impugning my own integrity and conscience,” he said today. “The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is orchestrating all this while refusing to communicate with me. I have had no direct communication with them. I have never been given an opportunity to meet my accusers, or to understand why this action is being taken against me when I’ve raised the same issues, consistently, for decades.”
The documentation Fr Flannery received, apparently from the CDF took the form of a typed A4 page (not a letterhead) which was unsigned.
“The only reason that I can be sure that this came from the CDF is that Michael Brehl, the head of the Redemptorists, told me it did,” he said. “All requests for direct communication with the CDF have been ignored.””
Fr. Flannery described as “frightening, disproportionate and reminiscent of the Inquisition” the actions against him.
Expansion in plans for Belvidere's St. James Church - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
THIS STORY MAY BE AVAILABLE ONLY TO SUBSCRIBERS OF RRSTAR ON-LINE
See the highlighted sentence—has $1,000,000 already be spent?
Parishioners appear more accepting of St. James Catholic Church’s new plan to address overcrowding issues at the building.
Hundreds of people learned Tuesday that about 500 more seats will be added to the church by expanding the current building, rather than tearing it down to construct a new facility. …
the project cannot surpass the $5.5 million mark, of which $1 million has already been spent.
Leaders expect the proposed renovations to come in on budget since it costs less to renovate a building.
Weekly Collection for weekend of January 20, 2013
Three additional pledges, $1,015 additional pledged,
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Association of Catholic Priests « Bondings 2.0
An Irish Times news story of the press conference reported the scope of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) investiagation of the priest:
“Fr. Flannery told a press conference in Dublin yesterday he had been threatened with excommunication by the CDF for refusing to recant his more liberal views on church teachings concerning women priests, contraception and homosexuality.”
According to theBBC.com, at the press conference, Fr. Flannery stated that signing the loyalty pledge that the Vatican has asked for would violate his conscience:
” ‘It would mean that I was saying that I accept the teaching on contraception, which I have been on record for a long time saying that I thought Humanae Vitae (official Catholic teaching on procreation) was a big mistake,’ Fr Flannery told the media.
“He claimed that accepting the pledge would also mean that he ‘fully accepted all the teaching on homosexuality’ including the church’s use of what he called ‘some of the awfully unfortunate phrases – like disordered state and intrinsic evil.’ “
A press release from Fr. Flannery’s press conference contained this reflection from the priest:
“The choice facing him, he stated at a press briefing today, Sunday 20th January, was between deciding between Rome and his conscience.
“ ‘I must also question if the threats are a means, not just of terrifying me into submission, but of sending a message to any other priest expressing views at variance with those of the Roman Curia,’ he added. ‘Submitting to these threats would be a betrayal of my ministry, my fellow priests and the Catholic people who want change.’
“Fr. Flannery said that because he believes he is being subjected to unfair treatment, he has taken legal advice under Canon and Civil law to help him defend his rights as a member of the Church and as an Irish citizen.”
In the op-ed in The Irish Times, Fr. Flannery gives a summary of the development of his ministry, the need for discussion in the church, the difficult proceedings with the Vatican, and concludes with a statement of resolve:
“There are people who will say I should leave the Catholic Church and join another Christian church – one more suitable to my stance. Being a Catholic is central to my personal identity. I have tried to preach the gospel. No matter what sanctions the Vatican imposes on me I will continue, in whatever way I can, to try to bring about reform in the church and to make it again a place where all who want to follow Christ will be welcome. He made friends with the outcasts of society, and I will do whatever I can in my own small way to oppose the current Vatican trend of creating a church of condemnation rather than one of compassion.”
A 66-year old member of the Redemptorist community, Fr. Flannery received strong support in a statement from his brothers in faith. The BBC report noted:
“In a statement, the Irish Redemptorist order said it was ‘deeply saddened by the breakdown in communication’ between its priest and the CDF.
“It described Fr. Flannery as ‘highly regarded and respected by many in Ireland’ and added that there was a ‘very lively spirit of debate and dialogue’ within the order.
“The statement said that although it did not accept the priest’s views on all matters, it understood and supported his efforts to listen to and articulate the views of people he met during the course of his ministry.
” ‘It is of immense regret that some structures or processes of dialogue have not yet been found in the Church which have a greater capacity to engage with challenging voices from among God’s people, while respecting the key responsibility and central role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,’ the statement said.”
Priestly support came, too, from the members of the Association of Catholic Priests, an Irish organization that Fr. Flannery helped to found. The Association’s statement, in part, read:
Read more about Father Flannery and the Irish Associaition of Catholic Priests by clicking on the following: Association of Catholic Priests « Bondings 2.0
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Prosecutors to review new church abuse records; ex-D.A. skeptical - latimes.com
Whatever they did back then was horrendous, unethical and immoral to the point of biblical proportions," Cooley said, but because of the statute of limitations "it may not be criminal."
Monday, January 21, 2013
L.A. church leaders sought to hide sex abuse cases from authorities - latimes.com
The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Illinois LGBT activists to demonstrate against Cardinal George – LGBTQ Nation
By Tony Merevick
Chicago Phoenix
The rally will take place on Feb. 10 outside of Holy Name Cathedral, 730 N. State St., at 10:30 a.m. and will continue through the high-profile church’s Sunday Mass at 11 a.m., GLN Co-Founder Andy Thayer told Chicago Phoenix Thursday.
Michael D'Antonio: Cardinal Dolan and the Dead Lose One to the Living
Timothy Dolan chose the dead people, placing $55 million into cemetery trust funds and out of the reach of local abuse victims suing the Church. (They want compensation for the suffering caused by childhood sexual trauma.) Dolan left Milwaukee to take the most visible post in Catholic America -- cardinal of New York City - but he could not escape his choice. The victims asked a federal bankruptcy judge to reverse him, and on Friday she did. For now the $55 million is available to settle hundreds of well-documented cases in which priests raped and sexually molested children and adolescents.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Items in the bulletin for January 20, 2013
There may be an insert like last week’s which is shown below:
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
After Ideology | America Magazine
Despite a widely expressed desire to end the partisan gridlock that now paralyzes American politics, it stubbornly continues and grows. And despite the U.S. Catholic bishops’ regular pleas for a new politics based on human rights and the common good, Catholics have been unable to offer a national alternative to the political warfare now taking place. Instead, we have contributed to it. Both those bishops who have openly identified with the political right and those who disagree but have remained silent have equally contributed to a widely held public perception that the Catholic hierarchy has joined the right-versus-left battle on the conservative side.
Click on the following to read all of the story: After Ideology | America Magazine
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Business leaders come out in support of gay marriage in Illinois - chicagotribune.com
By Manya BrachearTribune reporter
Dozens of Illinois business leaders and several companies publicly endorsed gay marriage Sunday in an attempt to reignite the issue after a proposed bill failed to get traction in Springfield this month.
….In addition to Google, Orbitz Worldwide and Groupon, individual signers of the letter include Desiree Rogers, CEO of Johnson Publishing Co.; Lance Chody, CEO of Garrett Popcorn Shops; Fred Eychaner, chairman of the Newsweb Corp.; and Laura Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs.
The bishops and ministers from about 1,700 Illinois congregations and ministries said the attempt to alter the state's definition of marriage threatens an institution that society counts on as the ideal environment for raising children and teaching men and women to depend on each other.
While the bill exempts religious institutions from having to consecrate same-sex marriages, religious leaders worry that it would not protect their rights to freely exercise their religious beliefs because they would have to treat same-sex unions as the equivalent of marriage in their business practices. For example, they might be forced to provide health insurance to an employee's same-sex spouse.
New? St. James Church Building Plan
The following was an insert to the January 13, 2013 weekly bulletin.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Weekly collections for the weeks of Dec 30, 2012 and Jan 6, 2013
Two additional pledges, $7,000 additional pledges.
Readers Disagree with Cardinal George's Stance on Same-Sex Marriage - Wilmette-Kenilworth, IL Patch
Many readers say marriage is not strictly a religious institution and there should be a separation of church and state.
Names in church sex abuse records should be public, judge rules - latimes.com
A Superior Court judge has ruled the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles must release the names of high-ranking church officials in 30,000 pages of confidential records about priests accused of abusing children.
In making the order Monday, Judge Emilie H. Elias reversed a key part of a 2011 ruling by a retired judge who said he feared including the names of the hierarchy could be used to embarrass the church further. Elias said the public’s right to know how the archdiocese, the largest in the nation, handled molestation allegations outweighed such concerns. She also reversed retired Judge Dickran Tevrizian’s ruling that priests who had faced only a single allegation of abuse would have their names blacked out.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Girl, 11, now must tackle Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Coaches and officials in Our Lady of Mount Carmel CYO in central Bucks County were unaware of the boys-only policy, so Pla played the 2011 season and two games into the 2012 season before an opposing team reported her, said her mother, Seal Pla.
Most opposing players "couldn't tell I was a girl
Click on the following for more details :Girl, 11, now must tackle Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Bishops investigating US nuns have poor records on sex abuse cases | National Catholic Reporter
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith monitors compliance with Roman Catholic moral teaching and matters of dogma for the oldest church in Christendom
congregation accelerates a disciplinary action against the main leadership group of American nuns, many sisters and priests are reacting to a climate of fear fostered by bishops and cardinals who have never been investigated for their role in the greatest moral crisis of modern Catholicism: the clergy sex abuse crisis.
A small but resonant chorus of critics is raising an issue of a hypocrisy that has grown too blatant to ignore. The same hierarchy that brought shame upon the Vatican for recycling clergy child molesters, a scandal that rocked the church in many countries, has assumed a moral high ground in punishing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group whose members have put their lives on the line in taking the social justice agenda of the Second Vatican Council to some of the poorest areas in the world.
Click on the following for more details; Bishops investigating US nuns have poor records on sex abuse cases | National Catholic Reporter
Friday, January 4, 2013
Crap Of The Week: Cardinal Francis George « CBS Chicago
….Let’s turn back the clock to the summer of 2008. At that time, Cardinal George released the transcript of his deposition taken in the litigation surrounding the Archdiocese’s sexual abuse scandal.
In that deposition, it became clear that Cardinal George:
- Worked to reduce the 20-year prison sentence of a convicted child molester, Norbert Maday;
- Repeatedly refused to follow recommendations and promptly remove abusive Chicago priests from ministry;
- Appeared deeply conflicted between his concern for children and his duty to defend accused priests;
- Believed that at the time of his ascension to becoming Chicago’s archbishop in 1997 that sexual abuse by clergy was mostly a thing of the past;
- That when Daniel McCormack was arrested in January 2006, said: “We thought this was done, or at least contained” an;
- Had knowledge that the vicar for priests, Rev. Edward D. Grace, and Auxiliary Bishop George J. Rassas withheld information about abuse allegations.
So, Cardinal George, let me get this straight.
The systemic rape and abuse of children and the destruction of dozens (or even hundreds) of childhoods that is ignored, hidden, and perpetuated by the Church is somehow acceptable.But, legally recognizing the desire of two loving, committed people to join together as spouses is acting against the common good of society and will require us to pretend to accept something that is contrary to the common sense of the human race. Got it…..
For the rest of this interview and other 670 The Score interviews click here.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Illinois Catholic cardinal fights gay marriage tide
University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey R. Stone wrote in The Huffington Post: "The plain and simple fact is that reasoning about what is 'natural' is deeply vulnerable to distortion by one's own personal values and preferences. ... Cardinal George insists that same-sex marriage is incompatible with 'nature.' One might just as easily say the same about celibacy. There is such a thing as right and wrong, but invocations of what 'nature' commands is no way to get there."
Click on the following for more details: Illinois Catholic cardinal fights gay marriage tide
Vatican Is 'Cash Only' As Bank Of Italy Blocks Electronic Payments Over Money Laundering Concerns
Deutsche Bank Italia, which for some 15 years had provided the Vatican with electronic payment services, said Thursday that the Bank of Italy had pulled its authorization after Dec. 31….
Italian central bank took the action because the Holy See has not yet fully complied with European Union safeguards against money laundering. That means Italian banks are not authorized to operate within the Vatican, which is in the process of improving its mechanisms to combat laundering.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Cardinal George misrepresents church history - Chicago Sun-Times Letter to Editor
church canonized St. Sergius and his husband St. Bacchus in the fourth century. It doesn’t get much gayer than one man marrying another. And Prior Jacques Goar (1601-1653) had several rites for gay marriage in his prayer book “Euchologion Sive Rituale Graecorum Complectens Ritus Et Ordines Divinae Liturgiae.” …
In fact it really wasn’t until the 1700s that his church changed its stance on gay marriage. So please stop with the “millennia of tradition” or “nature’s laws” arguments. …
Letter-from-Cardinal-Francis-George-on-same-sex
Click on the following to read the entire letter: http://tribwgntv.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/letter-from-cardinal-francis-george-on-same-sex.pdf
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Cardinal George: Gay marriages go against natural law : Chicago Phoenix
Despite the anti-gay marriage sentiments coming from the top of the local Catholic Church, a majority of Illinois Catholics support same-sex unions, according to a poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University released in late September.
Eighty-one percent of Catholics surveyed support either full marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples or the right to a civil union. Specifically, 39.9 percent said they support marriage rights and 40.1 percent said their position is for same-sex couples to have civil unions. Only 15.7 percent said there should be no legal recognition of same-sex relationships, according to the poll.