BOOK II §4700 PRIESTLY SMOKING IN RESIDENCE - This policy is not intended to regulate whether a priest chooses to smoke or not. The diocese encourages all its priests to consider their health and the principles stated above when choosing to partake or not partake in tobacco products. Further, this policy is not intended as giving permission or encouraging any priest to smoke; rather, it is focused on the specific situation where a priest chooses to smoke inside a residence owned by the parish or the diocese.

BOOK V §2600 DIOCESAN RECORDS – This is an edit to this existing Diocesan Records policy updating the membership of the Records Conservation Board.

BOOK IV §400 THE CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST AND OTHER LITURGIES – This is an expansive policy covering celebrations of the Eucharist and other Liturgies, including topics related to Posture for receiving Holy Communion, the Offertory Collection, Mass Schedules, Mass Offerings and Stole Fees, Valid Matter for the Celebration of the Eucharist, and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, among others.

Recognize a faith-filled woman in your parish - The Springfield Diocesan Council of Catholic Women are pleased to again host the Women of Distinction (WOD) Celebration. They are hoping that all parishes will participate in this wonderful opportunity to recognize faith-filled women in our parishes. Although every year only one lady from each parish may be selected, this honoree represents all the faith-filled ladies in each parish.

The Women of Distinction Mass will be at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield on June 15 at 10 a.m., followed by a luncheon at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield.

Please go to dio.org to find a homepage banner to register your 2024 Woman of Distinction and another banner to register for lunch. That lunch form will need to be printed, filled out, and mailed with your check to the person listed on the form. If you have any questions, please contact Janet Zimmerman: janetzim14@yahoo.com or 217-494-4743.

National Eucharistic Pilgrimage procession coming to our diocese and National Eucharistic Congress in Indy - The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is an unprecedented pilgrimage in which Catholics will pray and publicly follow Jesus in their cities through Eucharistic processions. The Diocese of Springfield in Illinois is excited to be included in one of the four national routes (July 8-12), all of which lead to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21. The national procession will be in seven cities. If you go to Bulletin Announcements, you will find content to promote the procession and Congress.

Very limited National Eucharistic Congress tickets available for nearly half price - The Diocese of Springfield in Illinois has pre-purchased weeklong passes to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis this July at a discounted rate, and we’d like to offer the opportunity to the people of our diocese.

Passes are $200 (a savings of $160) and can be purchased at https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=XebMKt. Confirmation of this purchase will come in an email in which you will receive a payment code. After you receive that payment code, you will then need to register for the Eucharistic Congress itself by going here: https://www.eucharisticcongress.org/register. When checking out after clicking a “full event pass,” you will then put in your code during the payment option so the price becomes $0. Lodging, meals, and travel will need to be booked and paid for separately.

Personnel Changes: The following are personnel changes at the Catholic Pastoral Center:

• • Mark Brummer promoted from Controller to Finance Officer.
  • Jen Hoeferlin hired as the Director for the Office for Program Management, working under the Office for the Chief of Staff.
  • Anthony Swingle hired as the Director of the Office for Buildings, Properties and Cemeteries. Anthony will begin on April 22^nd. He will be training under Greg Fleck preparing for Greg’s retirement.

The Curia is hiring! - We are looking for passionate individuals for the roles of Director, Office for Safe Environment, Safe Environment Assistant and Internal Auditor. Please visit dio.org/jobs for more information.

Save the date! The 50^th Anniversary Mass will be September 22, 2024 at 2 p.m at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. All couples married 50 years or more are invited to attend.

Our Getting Better with Gallagher Financial Wellbeing series continues with a discussion of insights that will help employees prudently navigate the process of purchasing a home.

In this session, Gallagher’s Financial Planning consultants will guide participants through the factors that should be taken into account when considering the purchase of a home: determining a budget, evaluating mortgage options, evaluating the housing market, and negotiating the purchase their dream home.  The program is intended to help employees avoid common pitfalls and make a smooth transition into homeownership.

Attached is the PDF invitation which outlines the details of the program and includes the link to register for the Webinar.  Please feel free to forward this information to your employees. And, please note the QR code that has been added to the attached flyers for easy access via smartphone.

Additionally, attached is the full 2024 calendar of financial wellbeing webinars you can send out to participants.  Participants can register for all of the webinars in 2024 through the QR Code. They may also register for past seminars to access them on-demand.

Missionary Cooperation Plan 2024 - Please send the Office for the Missions the dates in which the missionary will be coming to your parish to make their MCP summer appeal.  If a community has not contacted you by May 1, please first try to contact them yourself; if that fails, contact the diocesan Office for the Missions for assistance.  Letters were mailed to all pastors in early March containing the missionary assignment and contact information for each particular parish for this summer’s Missionary Cooperation Plan.  If you need your MCP letter resent, contact Cindy Callan at ccallan@dio.org or 217-321-1137 and she will send it to you.

Tips for a Successful Missionary Visit:

Hospitality:  Is someone available to meet the visitor upon his/her arrival at the parish?  Someone needs to know when the missionary will be arriving and greet him/her, reconfirming information about Mass times, church locations, lodging, meals and transportation.  Perhaps a Hospitality Committee can help with this.

Message:  The missionary has come to share stories of the Mission Church around the world and to invite your participation through prayer and financial offerings.   Please understand that visitors most likely will speak English with an accent.  This is to be expected from people who come from another country.  Please ask your parishioners to be patient and understanding.  Although speakers who can communicate clearly in English is always requested, this does not always happen.

Collection:  The method of collection should be understood by all.  No missionary group is to use envelopes with their mailing address, collect donor information, sell merchandise, or solicit child or seminarian sponsorships.  All proceeds should be sent to the Office for the Missions.

Problems:  Contact Donna Moore or Cindy Callan in the Office for the Missions, 217-698-8500.

• We are looking for parishes willing to have a discovery call with Parish Staq/PushPay on the conversion process. This call will help provide us with information on what may be holding parishes back from starting and provide critical feedback to the implementation team. If you are willing to share your opinion, please contact Katie Price at kprice@dio.org
• Benefits to being an early adopter!
  • We are not mandating the software at this time; however we are also not invoicing until out initial group is up and running confidently! So, this is a great time to get started with lots of training available and the Implementation Team ready to walk with you through the process.
• Looking to get started? Check out the webinar recordings here: Webinar Schedule

• Please remember, you should not be in campaign mode until you have completed the Parish Vitality Study which includes the Report presentation and had your campaign tasks/goals approved. The Parish Vitality Study can be found at Parish Vitality Study – Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.
• If you do not have online giving set up, this is a critical part of the process for collecting campaign pledges. Please contact the Parish Vitality and Mission Advancement office to get your parish set up to receive recurring pledge payments online!
• FreeWill Partnership for Stocks, Qualified Charitable Distributions and Wills/Bequests can be a great tool to get your campaign off and running. Many donors are starting to prefer these types of giving mechanisms, however without processing through FreeWill it makes it extremely challenging for our PVMA and FInance office to identify the gift, understand donor designations and ensure it gets to the proper parish. For more information, please contact Rachel Langdon at rlangdon@dio.org. You can share this link for those interested in stock gifting to your parish: Diocesan and Parish Stock Giving Tool

Video about Assisted Suicide available to show - Learn more about why legalization of assisted suicide is not good for Illinois. Watch this video where Fr. Peter Harman and Fr. Christopher Trummer discuss this important topic: Assisted Suicide Legislation in Illinois is Dangerous and Morally Wrong (youtube.com). Or, join a weekly, 30-minute, informational webinar every Thursday, 12:30 pm.  Email dmoore@dio.org to get a link to join the webinar.

Safe Environment Audits - These are due May 31, 2024. If you have any questions, please contact Debbie Maynerich at dmaynerich@dio.org. Thank you!