Bishop's Blog

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Catholic Schools Week #CSW15

The world today simply doesn't need more private schools; there are plenty out there. Perhaps too many.  But, the world today and the Church do need more Catholic schools that remember who they are. The identity of any Catholic school is both a distinction and an opportunity, a great challenge and a unique grace. If it was the critical task the 20th century to ensure that Catholic colleges would be true colleges accepted academically by their peers at secular institutions, it is perhaps just as vital in this 21st century to ensure that our schools also continue to be unashamedly Catholic, morally grounded, and qualitatively self-consciously different from purely secular schools.  To be homogenized into the undifferentiated academic culture of most schools today would constitute a colossal loss of nerve and a sad—perhaps a shameful—betrayal the church's academic tradition.  Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ we should never be like everyone else. Existing at the heart of the church should make Catholic schools better. Think of the Lord we serve.  Think of the history that is ours. Think of the tradition of learning, the gift of culture, the spirit of holiness, the commitment to service, the shared sense of community that constitutes the educational heritage the Catholic Church.  Our own CSC (Congregation of Holy Cross) schools should never choose between being excellence or being Catholic.  A school in the Holy Cross tradition should not be either-or, but rather both-and. Catholicity in itself has both identity and universality.  Catholic tradition in all its ancient variety and richness is so profound, so wise, and so self-confident in its own exploration of the truth that it can dare to ask questions and it can dare to promote dialogue. The excitement, the energy, and sometimes even the passionate dissidents of ‘disputatio’ all are a valued part of our intellectual heritage.  It was well known to the Fathers of the Church and to the great lecture halls of the first medieval universities that our Church invented. Catholicism exposes needs and empowers capacities that can fill the human heart with amazement, the intellectual life with the light the Gospel, and the academic enterprise with profound purpose. The community experience, the vast exhilaration of worship, can humanize the rigor the intellectual life and give both students and professors an enduring passion for learning, and a deeper capacity for wonder, a hunger for knowledge, a commitment to justice. The connections between science and mysticism, friendship and generosity, and especially the transforming experience of God give hope and meaning to academic inquiry. Scholarship and teaching, if pursued in the context of faith should be open to a truth that is without end, that enlarges our hope, and diminishes are apprehensions. Catholic colleges in general, and all Holy Cross Schools in particular, are therefore called by our confidence in the Gospel to be the yeast in the loaf of higher education and make a singular contribution—both in our own church and to the educational mosaic the wider world.  So our schools can never think and act just like every other school—politically correct, unquestioning, and totally submissive to all the cultural dogmas of this moment. Universal Church and the world does need excellent schools that have the conviction to be true to themselves and, therefore, stand out rather than blend in. 

Catholic schools exist not only to educate, but to sanctify.  Our schools are not only devoted to producing success, but also to producing saints.




Sunday, January 25, 2015

After March for Life in Washington D.C.


Diocese of Peoria Pilgrims gather for Holy Hour & Mass with Bishop Jenky at St. Joseph Capitol Hill

Central Catholic at the Capitol Building

Group from Mendota tour Washington D.C.

Diocese of Peoria group Holy Hour

Marquette High School group tour Washington D.C.

Marquette High School Group

Marquette High School Group

Friday, January 23, 2015

March For Life 1/22/2015 in Washington D.C.

Pro-Life Youth Mass at the Armory before the March For Life

Central Catholic High School & Diocese of Peoria Seminarians

Some Seminarians of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria

Priests of the Diocese of Peoria before Mass

Bishop Jenky on the big screen during Mass


Diocese of Peoria Pilgrims at the March in Washington D.C.














Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Statue of Mary in the Cathedral

In 1913, on the occasion of Bishop Spalding’s Golden Jubilee of priestly ordination, a young Peorian and talented architect, sculptor and designer Joseph G. Cowell undertook the task of the Cathedral redecoration which, along with three new marble altars and windows, included a new statue of Madonna for a side altar.

On the day of his ordination Archbishop Fulton Sheen in the presence of this statue promised to do a holy hour every day and to celebrate Mass in honor of the Blessed Mother. 

“On the day of my ordination, I made two resolutions: 1. I would offer the Holy Eucharist every Saturday in honor of the Blessed Mother to solicit her protection on my priesthood.  The Epistle to the Hebrews bids the priest offer sacrifices not only for others, but also for himself, since his sins are greater because of the dignity of the office.  2. I resolved also to spend a continuous Holy Hour ever day in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.”  Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Treasure in Clay © Society for the Propagation of the Faith 1980)


Sometime during 1960’-70’, the statue found its new home in the garden of the Guardian Angel orphanage in West Peoria.  Roughened by the weather yet still beautiful, the tender Madonna eventually came back to the Cathedral to a place of honor in the Lady Chapel where it is to this day.