Lent is meant to be a time of prayer and penance and for many members of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois this Lent will also be a time to use those 40 days to stand up for life.

In Effingham, a 40-Day Prayer Campaign for Life has already seen great success. The campaign, originally co-lead by Loretta Koester (who was 86 years old at the time) and Valerie Kemme, was begun in January 2012. Since Koester’s death two years ago, Kemme has been the sole leader for the campaign. “Loretta passed away at the age of 91, but she co-led the campaign even in the months before she passed away,” says Kemme. “What an example of fortitude!”

Michael Hicks has been named president and CEO of HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur. He will begin serving in his role on April 1.

Hicks comes to St. Mary’s after spending more than two decades with UChicago Medicine: Ingalls Memorial, a non-for-profit in the Chicago area. He most recently served as the senior vice president and chief operating officer. Hicks is a hospital executive with a proven track record in inpatient, outpatient and service line development. The first several years in his career were spent working in the healthcare sales field.

Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) has announced the appointment of Kelly Sager to serve as the president and CEO of HSHS Holy Family Hospital in Greenville. Sager currently serves as the chief nurse executive for HSHS Southern Illinois Division. She will begin her new role on March 18.

The season of Lent begins this year on Ash Wednesday, March 6 and ends just prior to the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, April 18, when the paschal triduum begins. Lent is the principal penitential season of the church year.

All the Christian faithful are urged to develop and maintain a voluntary program of self-denial (in addition to the Lenten regulations which follow), serious prayer and the performing of deeds of charity and mercy, including the giving of alms.

One of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois’ own, Father Augustine Tolton, continues to move toward sainthood. The cause for beatification and canonization of Servant of God Father Tolton, the nation’s first black priest — who served and is buried in Quincy — advanced recently in Rome.

On Feb. 5, the theological consultants of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously approved that his cause move forward.

Recently, the governor of New York, a Catholic, ignited a firestorm in the U.S. church with his support of new sweeping pro-abortion legislation in New York State and the response of many among the faithful has been a call for his excommunication from the church. For many, the notion of excommunication is a casting out, a spiritual condemnation as pronounced in the famous scene from Becket: “We declare him excommunicate and anathema. We cast him into the outer darkness. We judge him damned with the devil, and his fallen angels, and all the reprobate to eternal fire and everlasting pain.” That was our understanding several centuries ago, but not today.

Pope Francis dismissed former Cardinal and Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick from the clerical state Feb. 16 after a Vatican tribunal found McCarrick guilty of abusing minors and seminarians over several decades. It’s the first time a cardinal has been defrocked or laicized from the Catholic Church over sexual misconduct.

ALTON — The Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George celebrated the first profession of a novice during Mass at 10 a.m. on Feb. 2.

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki was the main celebrant of the Mass, held at St. Francis Convent in Alton. He was joined by several local and visiting priests.

Diocese well-represented at March for Life

Carrying rosaries and signs and wearing identifiable hoodies, scarves and warm outerwear, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, hundreds of young people, dozens of adults, several seminarians and members of the clergy from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois walked for life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18. The theme of this year’s March for Life was “Unique from Day One: Pro-life is Pro-science.”

Hansen named editor, director of Communications

On Jan. 14, Andrew Hansen joined the Curia staff for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois as director of Communications — and is also now editor of Catholic Times. Hansen replaced Marlene Mulford and Scott Mulford, who retired on Dec. 31, 2018 as director of Communications and as editor of Catholic Times, respectively.

ALTON — “A colored child born April 1, 1854, son of Peter Tolton and Martha Chisley, property of Stephen Elliott.” Those were the words written in the baptismal record for Father Augustus Tolton. Born a slave in Brush Creek, Mo., he grew up to become the first African-American Catholic priest. He bore the insults of racial prejudice, and even after his ordination suffered the jealousies of religious leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, who saw him as a threat to their congregations.

The colorful graphic that pops up on the home page when you enter https://empowerillinois.org on your computer states that the Tax Credit Scholarship applications open January 15. But for how much longer?

If J.B. Pritzker’s rhetoric during his long march to the governor’s office is an indication, not long.

LITCHFIELD ― Jim Timpe has been selected to serve as the new president and CEO at HSHS St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield. He started in this new role Dec. 11.

Timpe joined St. Francis from HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield where he most recently served as the director of imaging services, rehabilitation services, sleep and neuro-diagnostics. He had been in that role since 2011.

The Office for Vocations of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will host a “Thinking of Priesthood” day for men, ages 18-30 on Thursday, Dec. 27 at the Villa Maria Retreat and Conference Center in Springfield.

“Seniors in high school are also welcome and encouraged to attend,” said seminarian Zachary Samples who is assisting in organizing the event.

The Office for Vocations of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will host a “Thinking of Priesthood” day for men, ages 18-30 on Thursday, Dec. 27 at the Villa Maria Retreat and Conference Center in Springfield.

Just in time for holiday decorating and gift-giving, the 2018 Official City of Springfield Ornament was recently unveiled at a press conference in the Governor’s Mansion. Springfield Mayor James Langfelder; Maxine Bergman, executive director of St. Joseph’s Home; and Justin Blandford, curator of the Governor’s Mansion, participated in the unveiling event.

This year’s ornament features the recent renovation of the Governor’s Mansion and the Illinois Bicentennial. It is the 26th ornament in the City of Springfield series that celebrates hometown landmarks and events. This 2018 ornament is unique because it is the result of a partnership between St. Joseph’s Home and the Illinois Governor’s Mansion Association. Therefore, the proceeds from the sale of the ornament will benefit both organizations.

TANZANIA — While many college-age students are returning to their families for the holidays, Sacred Heart-Griffin High School (Springfield) graduate Isabella Farris is spending her first fall and winter since her 2018 graduation far, far from her home. Isabella, known as Izzy to her family and friends, is in the midst of a “gap year” that has her stationed — for now — in Tanzania, East Africa.

In Tanzania, Isabella is volunteering at the St. Nicholaus Children’s Center. The center is a Catholic residential home for orphaned, disabled and vulnerable children, operated by the Bukoba Catholic Diocese and founded by Stefanie Köster, director and German lay associate, and Sister Anne Carlino of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis in Springfield.

EFFINGHAM — With $2.8 million raised to date, Sacred Heart Parish in Effingham announced Dec. 3 it has far exceeded its own idea of what was possible in its Renew & Rejoice capital campaign.

In September, parish boosters announced an ambitious goal of $2.3 million needed to renovate and expand the church’s worship space and enable Sacred Heart Parish to complete all of their plans with no long-term debt.

This Veterans Day we remember a priest of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, Army chaplain Father Terrence Thomas Brady, who 75 years ago gave his life while ministering to his fellow soldiers. A native of Mt. Sterling who was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop James A. Griffin on April 24, 1938, Father Brady was just 30 years old when he died in World War II.

A notice sent to his fellow priests by Msgr. Michael A. Tarrent, who was chancellor for the diocese, said Father Brady was the first casualty among diocesan priests serving the Armed Forces. The heroic priest’s story was printed over several editions of the Western Catholic, which was at that time the name of the Springfield diocesan newspaper.

On Oct. 15, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was filled with enthusiastic students and faculty members from all over the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois for the annual Mission Mass. Representatives from a great number of Catholic schools and parishes in the diocese traveled to the Cathedral to attend Mass. Some of the groups took time to look around the Cathedral and to have their pictures taken with Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, who was the main celebrant.

Concelebrating with Bishop Paprocki were Msgr. David Hoefler, vicar general, and Father Angel Sierra. Deacons were Deacon Patrick O’Toole, who is director of the Office for the Missions and Deacon Terry Ellerman. The choir from St. Aloysius School in Springfield led the music at the Mission Mass and St. Mary School in Taylorville assisted with the liturgy. Patrick Hutt was the master of ceremonies.

JACKSONVILLE — Our Saviour Parish in Jacksonville will be holding a women’s prayer breakfast on Saturday, Dec. 1. The day will begin with Mass at 8 a.m. at Our Saviour Church and then continue at Hamilton’s 110 for the breakfast and speaker. This is the fourth year for the annual event.

The breakfast is open to all interested women and tickets are $15.

As Bishop Thomas John Paprocki remarked at the beginning of the Mass for Couples Married 50 Years or More, the afternoon of the first full day of autumn was beautiful both outside and inside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. It was a joyful day, he said, not just because the weather was near perfect on Sept. 23 but also inside the church hundreds of people were there to celebrate the beauty of long marriages.

A great number of the couples taking part were married in 1968 and celebrating their golden wedding anniversary this year, but some had been married much longer. Moreover, many of the couples came to the Mass with family members, who were there to celebrate with them. During the Mass the couples renewed their commitment to marriage and received a special blessing from Bishop Paprocki.

WASHINGTON (USCCB) — The Catholic Church in the United States will observe National Vocation Awareness Week, Nov. 4-10. The annual event, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations is a special time for parishes to foster a culture of vocations for the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life.

A 20-something couple comes in to ThriVe Metro East for confirmation of pregnancy. They admit this: They are not ready to be parents. There has been no prenatal care and they have no insurance. Moreover, they are struggling with substance abuse and are recently homeless and jobless. Their world is crashing in around them.

The potential birth mom thinks she may be “feeling movement.” All the pregnancy options and educational brochures are explained. The couple voices adoption and states everyone around them would support this decision.

The Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, members of a multi-cultural Franciscan congregation with headquarters in Germany, are currently hosting a meeting of their international congregation at St. Francis Convent in Springfield. The meeting began Sept. 6 and will run through Sept. 22, said Brian Blasco, director of Communications and provincial archivist.

“The Catholic Church has a moral obligation to provide its parishioners and the public a complete and accurate accounting of all sexually inappropriate behavior involving priests in Illinois.”

So began the Aug. 23 statement by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in joining Missouri’s and a growing number of state attorneys general seeking information from Catholic dioceses in the wake of the explosive grand jury report in Pennsylvania regarding priests’ misconduct.

The Office for Catechesis of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, in conjunction with local parishes, is pleased to offer faith formation courses for adults in locations across the diocese. These courses, which are open to everyone, are designed to help Catholics grow in their faith, respond to questions about the church, and make faith-filled decisions in their lives.