Twice a month, a group of men and women with a commitment to fostering vocations to the priesthood and religious life come together at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows to pray and learn.

Monsignor Thomas Flach’s journey in the priesthood took a difficult turn more than 10 years ago, when an unexpected illness slowed his steps.

Father Christian Reuter, OFM, is being remembered for his early work in the Civil Rights Movement and his admirable work with inmates in southern Illinois prisons and with ex-offenders.

They donated for years, sometimes decades, putting checks into envelopes that traveled thousands of miles to help sister parishes in Guatemala.

For nearly two centuries, Catholics in Gallatin County in the far southeastern corner of Illinois somehow found ways to worship together.