Fr. Godfrey Mullen, OSB, at the March 13 news conference at Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville announcing that he is the bishop designate of the Diocese of Belleville. “I have always been fascinated by the way Christ is present in His wonderful people in southern Illinois,” Bishop-elect Godfrey said […]
Pallbearers (clockwise from left) Eddie Essenpreis, Zach Bair, Jaydon Wyms, Jeff Bair and John Schomaker carry the body of Fr. Gene Neff to a hearse following the Feb. 27 Funeral Mass at St. Augustine of Canterbury in Belleville. Fr. Neff, a 53-year priest in the diocese and the director of […]
Father Eugene “Gene” Neff, who had been the director of Ministry to Sick and Aged since 1974, died on Friday, Feb. 20, in his residence at Keystone Place at Richland Creek in O’Fallon. Fr. Neff was 81. He was a priest in the Diocese of Belleville for 53 years before […]
Fr. Levi James (right) with former Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis Mark Rivituso during the promise of obedience June 7 at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville. By David Wilhelm Messenger Editor There was no shortage of important stories for Catholics in 2025, both locally and […]
The massive sandstone grotto at Camp Ondessonk in Ozark, located deep in southern Illinois, is like a cave and can be used as a shelter during storms (Submitted photo from recent Earth Day Mass). In the pre-dawn hours of July 4, catastrophic flooding of the Guadalupe River in west-central Texas […]
Fr. Adrian Fischer, OFM, a Trenton native, recently returned home to celebrate his 50th jubilee (Submitted photo). As a young man, Fr. Adrian Fischer, OFM, had no interest in becoming a priest. But there he was on July 13, back at his home parish, St. Mary in Trenton, celebrating his […]
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Peering at the sunlit skies through a Vatican-owned space telescope and calling the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 spaceflight mission was how Pope Leo XIV celebrated the anniversary of the first crewed moon landing. U.S. astronaut Michael Collins flew […]
