The Knights of Columbus honors the central place the Blessed Virgin Mary holds in the life of the order and the historic devotion that has been afforded to the Immaculate Conception by the Church of North America. The first cathedral in the new world north of Mexico was named for the Immaculate Conception, and the bishops of the United States named Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception as the patroness of the nation.

Michele Levandoski, director of Archives and Records Management for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, recently was recognized by the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists (ACDA). She received the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Award at a banquet during the ACDA biennial conference held July 21-25 at St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein.

For the answer to the question, the woman organizing the upcoming “In Her Cherished Heart” conference wants to assure that women of all ages are invited and encouraged to attend.

LITCHFIELD — When Pearl Hitchings turned 100 years old on July 23, Father Chuck Edwards was one of the people on hand to wish her well. That’s because he’s known Hitchings since his days in the seminary; back when she first promised to pray for him. Father Edwards says he appreciated the prayers then and adds that he’s always been fond of Hitchings, a woman he first met about 30 years ago.

TEUTOPOLIS — During the year 1839 Martin Van Buren was president, the United States passed the first state law permitting women to own property, Abraham Lincoln was courting his future wife and the village of Teutopolis (which means City of the Teutons) was founded by five German immigrants who made their way from Cincinnati, Ohio to settle there.

Bishop Emeritus Victor Galeone, formerly of St. Augustine, Fla., will lead families, consecrated religious couples and single men and women in a celebration of “life, love and family” at this year’s Humanae Vitae Mass and dinner Aug. 10 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield.

The Quincy Cursillo movement is celebrating its 40th anniversary on Aug. 10 in Quincy.

Representatives of Knights of Columbus Councils in Springfield, Chatham and Auburn recently presented a check for $12,705 to Debbie Shultz, director of Lifetime Pregnancy Health Center (LPHC) in Springfield, to go toward the purchase of a Mobile Medical Center.

ALTON — Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will be the main celebrant as the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George will celebrate the profession of first vows and reception into the novitiate of several sisters during holy Mass at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14. Mass will be celebrated at St. Francis Convent Chapel, 1 Franciscan Way, Alton. Two novices will make their first profession of vows and two postulants will be received into the novitiate.  

EDGAR COUNTY — With a bumper crop of corn standing tall and beans growing abundantly in fields across Illinois, farmers have much to be glad about this summer. However, approximately 50 family members of Evelyn Ring’s extended farm family had even more to be thankful for this year.

Totus Tuus week-long Catholic summer mission sessions for 2014 are wrapping up just as summer school breaks are winding down. This year’s program was very successful, said Kyle Holtgrave, associate director for Youth and Young Adult Ministry, adding that 16 college students brought the mission to students in grades 1-12 in about 20 diocesan parishes and one parish in Indianapolis.

“God is good!” youth leader Becky Bauerle called out to her young charges, who were laughing and talking among themselves.

“All the time!” they called back — and immediately they were quiet.

Over 50 individuals, both middle school youth and adult leaders from four Catholic parishes around Illinois and Wisconsin were in Springfield from July 14-18 as volunteers in the Just5Days service program.

The St. Louise de Marillac Ladies of Charity in Springfield recently gave a  gift of $5,000 to Catholic Charities at a June dinner meeting of the organization held at St. Agnes Church Parish Hall, Springfield.

Some areas of Benedictine University at Springfield have looked like a construction zone this summer — and campus leaders say that is a good thing. That is because the college is in the first phase of a five-part plan to modernize and upgrade the campus on the city’s north end.

At the University of Illinois Springfield, the Catholic student organization is steadily gaining ground, says Deacon Jim Ghiglione, who was appointed director of campus ministry just last year.

Deacon Ghiglione, who is also associate director in the Office for the Diaconate and pastoral facilitator at parishes in Mt. Zion and Bethany, says the program at UIS was begun on a rather informal basis several years ago. “Msgr. John Ossola started working with the college after he was named pastor of Little Flower (in 2007) and that is probably why the organization is named St. Therese, the Little Flower Catholic Student Organization.”

Does a week go by without the press or a politician talking about the plight of college-bound students? How do you separate what is real from that which is more about peddling papers and vying for votes? Did campaign promises work their way through Congress? Did pinched state budgets eliminate college grant assistance? More to the point, how will all this affect you and your college choice? While we won't claim to have answers to all the questions, Quincy University offers some context for the discussion, shares its perspective as a university and provides some information and advice for students considering college costs.

Keep your options open

Here are three things we do know:

You will be joining millions of other students in our nation's colleges and universities soon.

You will do so during an extremely challenging period for our nation's economy.

And you're certainly not alone if you're concerned about how all of this may affect your college planning.

Anytime you find yourself with a set of questions no one can answer, the best advice we can give you is to keep all your options open. That means applying to the universities you believe will best meet your needs. You won't have to make a final decision until next May and by that time, the college affordability picture, for you, is likely to be much clearer.

In the meantime, here's what you should know about state, federal and Quincy University responses to the economic challenges facing many students.

State and federal responses

State responses vary depending on where you live. Some state grant programs have remained stable while others have been trimmed. If you live in a state where funds have been cut back, realize that this is a temporary solution to a budget problem. As our country comes out of the recession, both state budgets and state grant programs will recover. Don't make a decision for next year based on legislative decisions made last year. The federal government also provides grant assistance. For students with financial need, as of June, 2014 the maximum Pell Grant is $5,645.

Quincy University responses

In a period when many private colleges are experiencing a decline in enrollment, new student enrollment at Quincy University remains strong with the second largest freshman group in over 15 years. Reasonable tuition, increased scholarship assistance and a commitment to graduate people in four years all play a role in that growth.

Looking at the costs

Because private colleges don't receive taxpayer support, they do cost more than public universities. In addition, there are added costs to maintain the smaller class sizes that create a personalized education for every student. Full-time professors cost more than graduate teaching assistants. There are costs for ensuring that every student has access to internship and other practical experiences that are especially important to your success in a tight job market. While we make these spending decisions carefully, we're also passionate about the quality of the learning experience that every student has.

However, private college tuitions and the financial aid they offer vary widely. It pays to make careful comparisons. The cost to attend Quincy University is significantly lower than at many private colleges. For the 2013- 2014 academic year, QU's cost for tuition, fees, housing and meals was $35,714.

Early scholarship awarding

We realize that lower costs alone won't solve the problem for most of our students. Starting immediately, you can expect an admission decision within a week of the time you complete your application. Then, with no separate application required, a scholarship offer will follow in approximately 10 days. Most QU freshmen receive scholarship offers that range from $8,000 to $15,000 per year. These renewable awards will directly reduce your tuition and, by making the awards early, we also hope to reduce some of the stress you and your family may be experiencing. This is the first step in building your financial aid package.

File the FAFSA

You should hear this advice repeatedly from every university you consider. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is available online after January 1. This determines eligibility for need-based grants, loans and campus employment from state and federal governments. It also determines your eligibility for additional grant assistance from Quincy University. Far too many families make incorrect assumptions about eligibility for need-based assistance. While lower-cost public institutions may be a good fit for some students, if you feel like you're compromising your educational goals just to find lower tuition, file the FAFSA. Before you make a decision, gather the information you need to make a good decision.

Graduating on time

An increasing number of economists agree that the single most important financial aspect of the college decision relates to how long it takes you to complete a four-year degree. Nationwide, only one of every four students completes a degree in four years. It's not just about spending additional years of tuition. It's about when you hit the job market...and the earnings that you can never make up. For now, keep all your options open. Apply to the universities that can best meet your needs. If Quincy University is one of those schools, we'll work with you at every step of the way to help you make a good college decision...and to find a way to pay for it.

Used with permissions from Quincy University. For more information on planning for and paying for college, visit The Affordability Series, offered by the Office of Admissions at Quincy University, at http://www.quincy.edu/admissions/affordability-series.

Buoyed by the favorable Supreme Court decision handed down one day before in the so-called Hobby Lobby case, supporters of religious liberty gathered July 1 under a warm noonday sun at the Lincoln statue in front of the state Capitol where Bishop Thomas John Paprocki led them in a prayer rally for religious freedom. The rally was part of the third annual Fortnight for Freedom, a two-week observance sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This year's Fortnight for Freedom in the Springfield diocese featured the June 28 presentation by First Amendment expert L. Martin Nussbaum, a Colorado Springs attorney and consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee for Religious Freedom. In "Constantine, Canossa, Culpeper County, the Constitution, the Council, and 'Contraceptives,'" Nussbaum escorted his audience on an excursion through several centuries of the foundation of the church and state, and contemporary assaults on religious freedom.

• After the Emperor Constantine's conversion, a new era in church-state relations began. Christianity flourished. He presided over the Nicene Council. Freedom for the church itself and favor from the state [under Constantine] is a wonderful thing.

• In 1077, at the northern Italian city of Canossa, the Church learned from Pope Gregory VII that there are two spheres: church and state; each is sovereign over the matters proper to its respective sphere.

• In 1773, a young James Madison visited Culpeper County, the next county over from his family's plantation where he experienced an epiphany when watching an imprisoned Baptist minister preaching from the barred window. The preacher was held for preaching without a license. As his thinking evolved and his service to Virginia increased as a member of the committee to prepare a state declaration of rights, the future founding father proposed "that religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity, towards each other." Truly a watershed moment in Western history.

• The various references to religion in the Constitution and later specific recognition of religion in the First Amendment of 1791: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people to assemble…"

• The influence of Father John Courtney Murray on the thinking of bishops and cardinals. Shunned at first, by 1963, he was invited to the Second Vatican Council as an expert theologian and had profound influence. Dignitatis Humanae (The Declaration on Religious Freedom) shifted the universal Church's teaching to the belief that freedom of religious conscience from government coercion is grounded first in the dignity of the human person and second on the Biblical revelation that in Christ, there is no coercion.

Nussbaum shared his belief that the last 12 years represent the worst period in American liberty history, where our own failings as faith communities and the opportunity to exploit those failings taken by foes of religion, failure to protect the institution of traditional marriage, increasing secularism, and the expansion of individual sexual rights by hijacking the anti-discrimination narrative drawn from America's deplorable history of slavery.

Deacon William "Bill" Neuser, 66, died June 29, in Shawano Community Hospital in Wisconsin. He was born May 7, 1948 in Quincy, the son of Paul and Inez (Keil) Neuser. He married Kathleen Lavery on June 30, 1979, in Quincy.

Youth and chaperones travel the country to help others

Although summer is traditionally a time for students and their parents to relax, play sports and enjoy vacation days, hundreds of Catholic young people around the diocese and their adult chaperones are spending at least one week this summer helping others at a Catholic HEART Workcamp (CHWC) and working with other organizations as well.

Catholic Times reporter Diane Schlindwein recently earned two top awards for her work with the newspaper; one from the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada and another from the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States.

The Catholic Press Association awarded Schlindwein first place in the "Best General News Photo" category for the cover photo featuring Bishop Thomas John Paprocki and then newly-ordained Deacons (now newly-ordained Fathers) Steven Arisman and Seth Brown on the steps of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The photo entitled "And here comes the Holy Spirit" was taken shortly after the Mass as high winds played havoc with the men's vestments. Schlindwein also wrote the accompanying cutline.

CPA judges commented, "So different from the standard we see from these events. Great moment, great motion and joy on the faces. This is what great photographers get. Always looking for a different way to tell a story."

The Pontifical Mission Societies gave Schlindwein a first place Archbishop Edward T. O'Meara Award in the "Interviews with Missionaries" category for her Catholic Times centerpiece article "Reaching out in South Sudan." The feature told the story of lay missionary and Chatham native Luke Ebener, who was interviewed while he was on a home visit in early 2013. The judges commented that the article was "well presented with moving text" and noted that Schlindwein's love for God and the works done by the missions came through as well. The centerpiece article was illustrated by photos provided by Ebener and was designed by Bill Callan of Catholic Times.

Schlindwein's awards were announced at the Catholic Media Conference that was held in Charlotte, N.C., and published in The Catholic Journalist as well as in a release from the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. The winning photograph was also featured in The Catholic Journalist.

EFFINGHAM — Later this month, in a long-time annual tradition, Effingham County Right to Life will host Crossroads Walkers — college-age people who are walking coast to coast to defend life.

The Crossroads Walkers are made up of several groups of young people who walk from the West Coast to Washington, D.C., all the while wearing T-shirts with Pro-Life written on them in large letters. The T-shirts both identify them and call attention to their cause.

For 20 years, walkers have been speaking at parishes, talking to the media and with others they meet along the way. They also attend Mass on a regular basis and peacefully pray outside of abortion clinics.

The group that will stop in Effingham are known as the "central" walkers. They left California on May 24 and will be in Washington on Aug. 16 for a pro-life rally at the Capitol. Walks are also held in several other countries as well.

The dinner in Effingham will be held in the Sacred Heart Parish Center and will be attended by the walkers, their host families, members of the Effingham Right to Life group and several priests, says Loretta (Mrs. Jack) Koester, a long-time leader of that area's Right to Life organization.

"They will arrive here on Tuesday, July 22 and we will host a dinner for them along with the host families," says Koester. "After dinner the students will have the opportunity to share some of their experiences before leaving for a good night's rest. Early the next day they will continue their journey across America to help bring about the culture of life."

Koester says she and one her daughters came across the group by accident many years ago. "We just happened to be going home and went by the church. We saw their van and so we went in to see what was going on. They were in there praying. We talked to them and I told them, 'Next year you will be our guests.' They've been coming back ever since.

"We get the food from a local restaurant and I make the pies, which they always seem to like," Koester says. "In all my 40 years of working for Right for Life, I can honestly say that the night those Crossroads Walkers come is always my favorite night of the year."

The walkers spend the night with a local host and then attend early morning Mass, eat breakfast and continue on their trip. Although the group is walking, they have a van that travels with them for safety purposes, says Koester.

"Think about it. Those young people give up their entire summer in order to defend life," Koester says. "You have to admire them. They are walking all that way and it is so hot. They are just a wonderful group."

For more information about the Crossroad Walkers go to the website www.crossroadswalk.org.

Father Richard Chiola, Ph.D., LCPC, was recognized with the Psychotherapy Mentor Award at the May 17 commencement exercises at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield. Father Chiola, an adjunct faculty member in the psychiatry department, was cited for excellence in faculty mentorship in psychiatric resident psychotherapy training.

Father Chiola is pastor of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Springfield and the bishop's delegate for health and wellness of priests. He is past-president of the National Organization for Continuing Education of Roman Catholic Clergy (NOCERCC) and is a licensed clinical professional counselor and certified sexual addiction therapist.

The Springfield Area Young Adult Mass group (YAM) recently donated $700 from their charity fund to three local charities as part of YAM's mission to support organizations that help others in the Springfield area. The YAM Board voted to give $200 to the Lifetime Pregnancy Help Center, $250 to the Ronald McDonald House, and $250 to Springfield Right to Life. YAM raised the money through their annual Charity Mini-Golf Tournament.

Members of the Blessed Sacrament Chorale find ministry in music

Jody Kienzler, music director and organist of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, patiently plunks out the melody on a piano. It’s a chilly Wednesday evening and 35 people have arranged themselves in metal folding chairs, binders open and eyes fixed upon her. The Mozart composition, Lacrimosa, is a difficult piece which will be sung at Sunday’s Mass, just four short days away. The Blessed Sacrament Chorale is up for the challenge.

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will lead the public in a prayer rally in front of the Illinois State Capitol on Tuesday, July 1 at noon.

Dear Catholic Times readers:

After 17 years as editor of Catholic Times and over 20 years of service to the Springfield diocese, I am retiring at the end of June. I wanted to take this opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to all our faithful readers. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to meet many of you. It’s been a pleasure to write and edit stories on how people in our diocese live the Gospel, sometimes in mundane and sometimes in heroic ways.

Youth from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois who are interested in music or becoming more active in their parish are invited to take part in The Journey Retreat at Christ the King Parish at 1930 Barberry Drive in Springfield. The retreat, given by Note the Way ministry on Saturday, July 19, begins at 8 a.m. and concludes after 4:30 p.m. Mass. All retreat participants will be singing during the liturgy before going home for the day.