During the month of September, a Mass of Welcome and Reception for Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will be held in each of the seven deaneries of the Springfield diocese. Collections taken at the Masses of Welcome will benefit Catholic Charities of the Springfield diocese.

Effingham Deanery
St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Teutopolis
7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 1

Alton Deanery
St. Boniface Parish, Edwardsville
7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7

Jacksonville Deanery
St. John the Evangelist Parish, Carrollton
7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8

Litchfield Deanery
Ss. Mary and Joseph Parish, Carlinville
7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9

Decatur Deanery
Holy Family Parish, Decatur
7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23

Quincy Deanery
St. Peter Parish, Quincy
7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27

Springfield Deanery
St. Joseph the Worker Parish, Chatham
7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28

The following letter, dated July 22, was sent to Governor Pat Quinn from the Catholic Bishops of Illinois.

Dear Governor Quinn:

As you know, for over a year we have joined Catholic and other nonpublic school representatives in urging the state’s political leadership to prevent the exclusion of our taxpaying families from state support when they choose to send their children to a school not directly supported by state taxes.

Unfortunately, those calls have so far gone unheeded. It is our understanding the state’s education budget for Fiscal Year 2011 has eliminated funding for the Textbook Loan Program and Educational Improvement and School Safety Block Grant.

These programs provided material assistance to all Illinois’ schools, and they represented the bulk of state assistance to nonpublic schools and their families. Nonpublic schools remain a significant and highly successful part of our state’s education system. Obviously, the state’s budget crisis is severe; however, policy decisions that exclude taxpaying families – who by the choice of a nonpublic school effect significant savings for the tax-paying citizens of Illinois – from the state’s system of educational support are poorly reasoned and deeply flawed.

In recent years, politics has hindered the operation of some of our state’s best performing schools. By eliminating these programs and defeating common-sense policy proposals, such as the recently defeated voucher bill (Senate Bill 2494), the state renders parental preference more difficult, increases its own expense and adds to the burden of over-crowded, under-performing school districts. For example, the Chicago Public School District recently announced the possible increase of class sizes from 28 to 35 students next year. Teachers do not believe classes of that size offer optimal educational opportunities. The voucher bill would have relieved this problem but its defeat, at least for the moment, means that another generation of poor children will be sacrificed to political necessities. The State will continue to waste its human capital.

We, the Catholic Bishops of Illinois, respectfully urge you to reconsider this situation. The State Board of Education’s strategic goals claim service to “every student” and “every school.” Elected policy-makers claim concern for “every child.” However, the recent decisions eliminating state support for all students and schools belie these claims. Please consider again the role our schools perform in educating Illinois’ children. They merit some form of state support. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago

Most Reverend Thomas G. Doran
Bishop of Rockford

Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton
Bishop of Belleville

Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C.
Bishop of Peoria

Most Reverend James Peter Sartain
Bishop of Joliet

Most Reverend Thomas J. Paprocki
Bishop of Springfield-in-Illinois

Bishop Paprocki appeared AM Springfield with Sam Madonia yesterday via phone. From discussing when he knew he wanted to be a priest to following hockey, take a few minutes and listen to Sam Madonia's interview with Bishop Paprocki.

To listen to the interview on the Sports Radio 1450AM website, please click here.

Bishop Paprocki wrote an op-ed to the State Journal-Register that was published in their May 6, 2010 edition. You can view the article on the SJ-R's site by clicking here.

Thomas Paprocki: Remarks in 2007 homily clarified

I am grateful for the warm welcome and words of congratulations on my appointment as the ninth bishop of Springfield. I look forward to my installation on June 22 and to serving as shepherd of the Catholic community of central Illinois.

At the same time, I would like to address some of the points that have been raised in recent media reports about remarks that I made in a homily three years ago. These reports assert that I am “seeking to revive an ancient and now-rare legal doctrine that would protect Church officials who willfully or negligently put kids in harm’s way.” That is not true. My reference in that homily to charitable immunity, which formerly in Illinois shielded charitable institutions from liability, was only to show how the pendulum has swung from charitable immunity to charitable bankruptcy. Far from being “extremist,” in fact, I was calling for a middle ground.

In the homily that I gave at the “Red Mass” for Catholic lawyers and judges in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Oct. 15, 2007, I said, “While a full return to the complete charitable immunity of the past is neither likely nor desirable, the civil law of our land needs to reflect a more rational and reasonable balance between equitable remuneration for those who have been harmed by agents of charitable and religious institutions and protecting the charitable contributions that have been given in trust to be used for charitable and religious purposes.” Moreover, I am not trying to “protect church officials”; I am trying to safeguard works of charity and religion while compensating victims fairly.

My words have been understood by some to suggest that I was blaming victims. My homily was directed to lawyers and judges who shape the legal system, not to victims. While in the context of a homily I did say that the devil is the force behind the attack, “particularly directed against bishops and priests,” apparently I did not make myself clear that it is the sins of priests and bishops who succumbed to the temptations of the devil that have put their victims and the Catholic community in this horrible situation in the first place.

I did say in my 2007 homily that “the sexual abuse of minors is a sin that must be addressed by the Church and a crime that must be punished by the criminal justice system.”

I repeated those views in my news conference recently in Springfield. I have given these matters a great deal of thought based on my experiences for 10 years as the cardinal’s delegate to the Professional Review Board in the Archdiocese of Chicago. I think these views are quite reasonable.

The Most Rev. Thomas John Paprocki is bishop-designate of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.

Download a copy of the press release

SPRINGFIELD — Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of the Archdiocese of Chicago to be the new bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. He succeeds Archbishop George J. Lucas, who was named archbishop of Omaha last June.

The appointment was announced at 5 a.m. April 20 in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

“We are grateful to God, to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and to Francis Cardinal George for choosing such a gifted and dedicated priest and bishop to serve us,” said Msgr. Carl Kemme, diocesan administrator, who introduced Bishop-designate Paprocki to the community during a news conference later that morning at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield.

“We are most grateful to Bishop Paprocki for accepting this appointment. Together, we pledge our prayers, support and loving cooperation to him in the ongoing work of proclaiming the Gospel,” Msgr. Kemme said.

Although he has been an occasional visitor to Springfield, Bishop-designate Paprocki said he sees his new ministry as bishop of the diocese and a “blessing” and looks forward to learning more about the Catholic community of central Illinois.

“I am deeply grateful for the confidence shown by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in appointing me to serve as the ninth Bishop of Springfield in Illinois,” Bishop Paprocki said. “I look forward to working with the priests, deacons, men and women religious, the lay Christian faithful and all people of good will here in our State Capital to carry out the mission entrusted to us by Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel. I pledge to do my best with the help of God’s grace to build on the fundamental blessings established through the dedicated ministry of the previous bishops of Springfield, especially my immediate predecessor, the Most Reverend George Lucas, now Archbishop of Omaha.”

Bishop-designate Paprocki is a native of Chicago, born Aug. 5, 1952. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 10, 1978 in Chicago. He is a canon lawyer, with a doctoral degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (1991), and is also a graduate of DePaul University College of Law in Chicago (1981).

In addition to his parish assignments, he served the Archdiocese of Chicago as vice-chancellor (1985-2000) and chancellor (1992-2000). He was ordained auxiliary bishop for the Chicago Archdiocese on March 19, 2003. He serves Chicago Cardinal Francis George as vicar for Vicariate IV; the cardinal’s liaison to Polonia (the Chicago Polish community); the cardinal’s liaison for Health and Hospital Affairs.

An installation liturgy and Mass of Welcome will be held Tuesday, June 22, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. More information on the installation and related events will be announced later.

The Diocese of Springfield in Illinois comprises approximately 146,000 Catholics in 131 parishes in central Illinois. The diocese includes the following counties: Adams, Bond, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Christian, Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Greene, Jasper, Jersey, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Menard, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Pike, Sangamon, Scott and Shelby.

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For complete press kit and downloadable materials, visit the diocesan Web site at: www.dio.org/bishop.