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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives wish to congratulate St. Mary's Parish in | ||||||
| 4 | Bloomington on the occasion of its Sesquicentennial | ||||||
| 5 | anniversary; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, St. Mary's was founded in 1852 when a few German | ||||||
| 7 | Catholic families arranged to have a priest from the Catholic | ||||||
| 8 | boys' school, who spoke German, recite mass; as the church | ||||||
| 9 | grew, the bishop agreed to send a priest for regular services, | ||||||
| 10 | and the church eventually acquired a resident pastor; in 1869, | ||||||
| 11 | parishioners built a small frame church; in 1886, the present | ||||||
| 12 | Gothic church was built; by the early 1900s, the Franciscan | ||||||
| 13 | Friars of Cincinnati, Ohio assumed the pastoral leadership; and
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| 14 | WHEREAS, In 1962, St Mary's was remodeled, including the | ||||||
| 15 | additions of new stained glass windows, a chapel with a | ||||||
| 16 | baptistery, and a rear entrance to the church; and
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| 17 | WHEREAS, St. Mary's Hispanic community donated a statue | ||||||
| 18 | commemorating Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1985; the statue was | ||||||
| 19 | blessed and placed in the baptistery; when the church was 111 | ||||||
| 20 | years old, a $250,000 interior renovation was completed; the | ||||||
| 21 | renovation included a new wooden altar and portable baptismal | ||||||
| 22 | font; the black, white, and pink marble from the old main altar | ||||||
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| 1 | and side altars was removed and used for decorative purposes | ||||||
| 2 | elsewhere in the church; the renovation revealed two windows | ||||||
| 3 | that had been covered in the 1920s; stained glass was added, | ||||||
| 4 | and the windows were restored; the church was rededicated by | ||||||
| 5 | the Most Reverend John J. Myers on September 22, 1996; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, St. Mary's serves nearly 1,300 households; in | ||||||
| 7 | addition to daily masses, the church offers five weekend | ||||||
| 8 | masses, included one celebrated in Spanish; the church also | ||||||
| 9 | supports a grade school, which offers Catholic education from | ||||||
| 10 | grades pre-K through eighth; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, The Franciscan Friars returned the care of St. | ||||||
| 12 | Mary's faith community to the Diocese of Peoria in June 2016, | ||||||
| 13 | after 135 years of faithful service and pastoral leadership; | ||||||
| 14 | the church's current pastor is Fr. Greg Nelson; Fr. Joe Baker | ||||||
| 15 | is the parochial vicar, and Fr. Tim Hepner serves as the | ||||||
| 16 | vocations director in residence; Jose Montenegro, Loren Keim, | ||||||
| 17 | O.F.S., and Antonio Herrera serve as deacons; therefore, be it
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| 18 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 19 | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 20 | recognize St. Mary's Parish on its Sesquicentennial | ||||||
| 21 | anniversary, and we wish it many more years; and be it further
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| 22 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
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| 1 | presented to St. Mary's Parish.
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