St. Bernadette Parishioners Pray for Crucifix Vandal
BY AMANDA HUDSON News Editor
ROCKFORD-Between July 5 and 6, someone vandalized a crucifix at St. Bernadette Parish in Rockford. The little road- side shrine is lo- cated near the corner of Rockton and Bell avenues, facing the west side Mercy Health Hospital. The shrine is located about 20 feet from a bus stop, and the par- ish has both a bus stop bench with a Christian message on it and a book box with small Bi- bles nearby. Parish staff member Kevin Rilott had recent- ly restained the wood of the shrine, which has been in place on the parish campus for about ive years. He says he could tell from marks on the wood that the corpus statue was de- stroyed by a hammer. He speculates that perhaps the van- dal wanted to do something in imita- tion of the destruction perpetrated the past several weeks against statues, in- cluding religious statues, around the country. A photo of the destruction was sent around to parishioners via Flocknotes with a request for prayers for the perpetrator. The parish did not file a police report. We are not an- gry about it, Ri- lott says, but just sad that the (per- petrator) has a misconception of who Jesus is (and that) Jesus loves them. Although do- nations were not requested, pa- rishioners did send money and the corpus has already been re- placed. We trust in prayer, Rilott says. One parishioner said, 'Well, I hope one day this person joins our par- ish! If it happens again, he adds, the par- ish just may put a small sign at the shrine with words to that effect.
(Photo provided)
The corpus from a little shrine on the campus of St. Bernadette Parish in Rock- ford was vandalized between July 5-6.
Stay-cationing?
Dont forget to bring Don't forget to bring
Make The Observer even easier to take along with a digital subscription. Call 815-399-4300, ext. 383 or go online to http://observer.rockforddiocese.org/subscribe.
Natural Family Planning instructors
Creighton Model www.fertilitycare.org Mary O'Grady, RN, BSN, CFCP, OSF Women's Health and FertilityCare Center, Rockford area, Mary.E.O'Grady@ osfhealthcare.org, 815- 332-3015 Erica Kornfeind, FCP, Spirit of Life FertilityCare Center, Rockford- Freeport areas, spiritoflifefertility@ outlook.com, 815-721- 5988 Donna Biernacki, FertilityCare Center of Northern Illinois, Bloomingdale area (Diocese of Joliet), donnabiernacki@yahoo. com, 630-924-8063 Rebecca Luoma, FCP, FertilityCare Services of Central Iowa-Dubuque Satellite Center, Dubuque (Archdiocese of Dubuque), RebeccaLuoma@hotmail. com, 563-580-9277 Couple to Couple League www.ccli.org George and Helen Jost, Crystal Lake area, 847- 658-8379 Dustin and Jill Schadt, Batavia area, 630-299- 9664 Tom and Cheri Logan, East Moline area (Peoria Diocese), CheriLogan@ hotmail.com, 309-752- 0897 Billings Ovulation Method www.woomb.org Dr. Carolyn Spadafino, D.C., St. Charles - Aurora areas, clyn09@hotmail. com, 815-481-2483 Maggie Schoonmaker, Medical Arts Associates, LTD, Moline area (Peoria Diocese), maggie.schoonmaker@ icloud.com, 309-738- 1104 Marco and Anabel Ordoez*, Woodstock area, 815-382-1719 Deacon Ignacio Badillo and Mara del Roco Infante*, South Beloit area, 608-718- 2710, 608-322-0273 Martin and Yesenia Reza*, South Beloit area, Martinmtb98@ yahoo.com, 608-718- 7406 Policarpio and Patricia Surez*, South Beloit area, bienestar. kanajedi@gmail.com, 608- 774-2684, 608-774-2894 Marquette Method Tonya Saurer, RN, BSN, Elgin area, online, Tonya. sauer@marquetteandme. com *Instruction in Spanish Need help finding an instructor in your area? Call the diocesan Life and Family Evangelization Office at 815-399-4300 or visit www.rockforddiocese. org/life.
(USCCB photo)
See related story on page 4 The Observer
FRIDAY JULY 17, 2020
5
Diocesan
Previous Page