Saint Mary Mokena will hold a day of prayer on Wednesday, October 10, in response to the recent sex abuse scandal in the Church.
The all-day event will begin at 8 am with Eucharistic Adoration and will continue with the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and other prayers until the evening. The day will conclude with a Mass offered for the healing of the Church at 7:30 pm.
“We will pray for the victims of abuse and their families, for healing and restoration in the church, for the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth, and for guidance on how to better respond to and report abuse so that something like this never happens again,” said Melissa Novak, Director of Faith Formation at St. Mary Mokena.
“What happened in the U.S. is heartbreaking. Instead of leaving the Catholic Church because some clergy acted like Judas, now is the time to stand up and call for change. We are Catholic because of Jesus, not because of certain priests,” she continued.
St. Mary joins other churches in the Diocese of Joliet and beyond in offering days of prayer and healing for the Church as a whole. The parish recently hosted three classes titled “Protecting God’s Children” to teach the warning signs of abuse, the signs of an inappropriate relationship between an adult and minor and how to respond if abuse is suspected.
These classes are offered throughout the year at various parishes around the diocese and are monitored by the Diocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection, which implements safe environment policies.
Bishop R. Daniel Conlon addressed the abuse scandal in a letter distributed in the St. Mary bulletin on August 26, 2018. In it, he acknowledged the deep wounds inflicted by members of the clergy and called the faithful to join in “rid[ding] the earth of this scourge and to protect the most vulnerable among us.”
>> Read the full letter from Bishop Conlon
For more information on this upcoming event, please visit the parish website, www.stmarymokena.org for a schedule of the day’s events.
The Mokena Marian 