The road to the diaconate has proved to be a bit longer for one candidate, but ordination is just a few days away. Gary Mueller will be ordained a permanent deacon for the Diocese of Belleville Feb. 26 at St. Nicholas Church in O’Fallon, his home parish.

Mike Kish, principal of Immaculate Conception Grade School in Columbia, Ill., talks about The Messenger and its importance in his life.
“The Messenger connects me to what we’re thinking about in Rome, to what we’re thinking about in Belleville with Bishop Braxton and what happens in our parishes.

Approximately ten cities in the Diocese of Belleville have been seriously affected by the unprecedented rise of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The flood, which has taken a tremendous toll in property and an unrecorded number of human lives, has caused heavy damages to churches, schools, church property and homes in the extreme southeastern and southern portions of the Diocese.