Infamous John Feeney released from prison

John Patrick Feeney

A former Roman Catholic priest convicted of four counts of sexually assaulting children has been released from prison after serving fewer than eight years of a 15-year sentence.

John Patrick Feeney's legal issues, however, will continue to surface in Outagamie County court well into 2012.

Feeney, 84, reached his mandatory prison release date on Nov. 1 and is living in an Appleton halfway house, according to the state Department of Corrections. He was sentenced on April 30, 2004.

Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Feeney won't be able to again harm children because he's so well-known to the public and will be under Department of Corrections supervision.

Feeney's widely publicized 2004 convictions in Outagamie County stemmed from the assaults of brothers Troy and Todd Merryfield when Feeney was parish priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom in 1978.

A civil lawsuit filed in 2008 by the brothers against the Diocese of Green Bay following Feeney's convictions remains unresolved. John Peterson, an attorney for the Merryfields, said the lawsuit has been difficult for the men.

"They think it's necessary and the right thing for them to do, but it is a burden on their recovery from this," he said.

The Merryfields were 12 and 14 at the time of the assaults.

Isely said the Merryfields represent just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the lives damaged by Feeney. The damage extends to many communities and likely to many people who've remained silent about what happened to them.

"That impact is going to last forever," Isely said.

continue at Appleton Post Crescent

Compass: Peshtigo school holds All Saints program

In GB, "Catholics prepare for most significant reforms since Vatican II"

The revisions reflect a new translation for the English-speaking world of the Roman Missal, the official Latin-language set of worship documents. It includes words and instructions for conducting the Mass, the central act of Catholic worship, in which priests bless and distribute bread and wine as essentially the body and blood of Jesus.

Virtually every prayer and proclamation in the Mass is undergoing at least some revision, marking the biggest change in worship for American Catholics since they began having Masses in English rather than Latin after the reformist Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

Locally, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has been planning for the changes for more than a year, according to Sister Ann Rehrauer, director of evangelization, living justice and worship for the Green Bay diocese. In addition to training for priests, the diocese has held informational workshops about the changes and parishes have formed study groups to prepare. Rehrauer also has been writing columns about the Roman Missal for The Compass, the diocesan newspaper.

"This will be quite a change for people," Rehrauer said. "The people in the pews will not notice it as much. There will be some things they will pray differently; some word changes. … But for the priest, every single prayer they pray has been retranslated with a different style of translation."

GB PG

Bp. Morneau to bless new school in Two Rivers near Manitowoc

Bishop Robert Morneau, who served as associate pastor at Holy Redeemer in Two Rivers in the 1970s, will christen St. Peter the Fisherman Catholic School during a special Mass on Thursday evening. The event will celebrate St. Peter the Fisherman's recent purchase of the former C.C. Case Elementary School as well as the long history of Catholic schools in Two Rivers, Mishicot and Francis Creek. That history goes back to 1867 when the first Catholic school opened in Two Rivers.

The celebration will begin at 6 p.m. with historical displays set up around the school and students and parents available to provide guided tours. The Mass, set to begin at 6:30 p.m., will include a procession of students and alumni representing each of the six original schools making up St. Peter the Fisherman carrying photos of their schools. They also will participate in the readings. The Rev. Tom Reynebeau, pastor at St. Peter the Fisherman Catholic Church, will concelebrate. A reception with refreshments will follow the Mass at 7:15 p.m., and the displays and tours will be available then as well.

htrnews

Yes, that is the actual logo of the school....

Bp. David Ricken: Reclaiming sexual health

During the recent Clergy Congress, Elizabeth Ministry International Retreat and Resource Center, located in Kaukauna, made a presentation about local efforts to bring awareness to the problems of addiction to pornography and its devastating effects on men, women, youth and families.

We are in the midst of a world-wide pandemic that is claiming the physical, spiritual, emotional and social lives of many millions of people. It is destroying marriages and devastating families. It separates individuals from God and is at the polar opposite of everything that brings true peace and happiness. What is this pandemic? Pornography and its primary delivery system is the Internet!

North American statistics indicate that porn makes more money than Hollywood at the box office; more than the sum of NBC's, CBS's and ABC's revenues; more than the music industry generates from record sales; and more than all major professional sports in the United States combined. It is estimated that 60 percent of Christian men and 30 percent of Christian women are addicted to pornography.

In 56 percent of divorces in the United States "an obsessive interest in Internet pornography" was a significant factor. A survey conducted among U.S. Christians revealed that 50 percent of men and 20 percent of women struggled with pornography use. Fifty-one percent of pastors say Internet porn is a temptation and 37 percent say it is a current struggle. Every year, millions of Christians are caught off guard and become hopelessly addicted.

Pornography undermines human dignity. It goes against God's plan for the body and the intimacy of sexual union in marriage. We must learn more about this scourge and its effects on families and offer concrete ways to offer hope and healing.

It's very important to understand that those who become trapped in pornography addiction and other unwanted sexual behaviors are not evil, broken or a lost cause. In fact, the profile of an Internet pornography addict is intelligent, sensitive and spiritual. There's a logical brain-science explanation behind their struggles. Pornography viewing triggers the brain into releasing a tidal wave of internal chemicals, including dopamine, endorphins, norepinephrine and more. The effect on the brain is very similar to street drug use, and can quickly create a literal "chemical dependency."

In reality, Internet pornography is electronic cocaine. These are good, valuable human beings who have developed a dependency on an extremely powerful brain-chemical-releasing activity for escape, self-medication and pleasure. This is not unlike an addiction to alcohol, drugs, food or any other personal "drug of choice." 

 continue at The Compass

It is fantastic to see His Excellency tackle publicly this issue!

Greenville WI parish dedicates memorial for babies lost to miscarriage

Sept 11, 2011, the St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish, in Greenville, WI dedicated their Miscarriage Memorial. The Memorial lists the names and dates of children who have died before birth, and provides families a place to remember and mourn. There are also plots available to bury the remains of infants who are lost later in pregnancy. By providing this burial location for children who die before birth, we acknowledge that they are not medical waste, but human beings deserving of dignity and respect. As Catholics we believe that all people are deserving of life from conception to natural death, and this Memorial affirms this belief.

details at Pro-Life Wisconsin

TheCompass: Suamico family hosts ninth annual outdoor rosary

SUAMICO — When the calendar turns to October, it's family rosary time on the Kontny estate. However, this is not your everyday family rosary. For nearly a decade, Hank and Monica Kontny have hosted a candlelit living rosary on their four acres on the west side of Green Bay for several hundred people.

"It came out of my deep love for our Lady," noted Monica. "I just wanted to do something special."

As she reminisced about that first rosary nine years ago, she recalled that they barely had enough people to make the 50 beads that form this living rosary. This year's event, held on the first Saturday of the month, saw enough people to pray all 20 decades (the traditional 15, plus the five luminous mysteries).

Deacon Bob Ellis of Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Green Bay served as the night's unofficial master of ceremonies. He began by leading the crowd with the singing of "Ave Maria" as the Knights of Columbus in full regalia led a Marian procession into the center of the crowd. They were followed by the Little Flower Society of St. Thèrése, which consisted of young girls dressed in white first Communion dresses. As they processed across the lawn, the girls tossed rose petals to the ground in preparation for the arrival of the statue of the Blessed Mother.

"Nights like this are important because it's a public display of faith," Deacon Ellis told The Compass. "Mrs. Kontny invites everyone and it gets everyone turning to God and praying."

continue at The Compass

Green Bay Packers offer game-day support to charities

» The Midwest Shrine game, in which the Packers present a donation to the Shrine Tripoli Temple, which operates Shriners Hospitals for Children, during a preseason game. The team has donated more than $3 million.

» Bishop's Charities game, a donation is made to the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay during a preseason game. About $3.5 million has been donated.

» Coats for Kids. The Packers host a Salvation Army Coats for Kids collection prior to a regular-season game. About 2,775 coats have been donated in the past decade.

» Breast Cancer Awareness Month recognition. The team dons various pieces of pink equipment, and pink ribbons and towels are handed out to fans in recognition of the month.

» Concession stand efforts. Area nonprofit groups volunteer their time to staff concession stands for home games. Donations totaling more than $780,000 were given to 70 nonprofits during the 2010 season.

» Sargento Touchdowns for Charity. For nine years, the company has donated funds for touchdowns scored during home games, raising more than $675,000 for Wisconsin food charities.

more at GB Press Gazette 

Anybody else think it's funny the two largest charities are Catholics and Freemasons?

Zubik: "In the name of my brother priests, I want to say this collar is not a bull's-eye."

After a man accused Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik of molesting him over two decades ago, the prelate immediately took to the airwaves yesterday (Wed., 10/5/11) to declare his innocence.
Addressing a flock of cameras and reporters, Bishop Zubik announced:

"Take a look at this collar. I've been putting this collar on every day for the past 40 years. In the name of my brother priests, I want to say this collar is not a bull's-eye."

"The accusation is false, offensive and outrageous," the bishop added. (See WTAE Philadelphia video.)
Indeed, law enforcement has now concluded that the accuser's claims are completely bogus. Beaver County District Attorney Anthony J. Berosh  told the Associated Press, "There was no factual basis for the allegation. No basis in law or in fact."
Berosh also added:

"I can assure you, based on 30 years of experience, I have never heard of a more convoluted, extenuated series of stories in order to justify the recollection of the now-made allegations against the bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh."

continue at TheMediaReport

HT GBHermit

Allegations against former Green Bay bishop, Bp. David Zubik

Former Green Bay Bishop David Zubik took the unusual step of calling a news conference Wednesday to announce that he has been accused of forcibly kissing a student decades ago, and to deny the charges.

Zubik, currently the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, said the former student made the accusation in August after the man's request to volunteer in the diocese was rejected. Soon after the rejection, the man alleged that the incident happened when he was a student at Quigley Catholic High School in the 1980s.

"The accusation is false, offensive and outrageous," Zubik said, adding that no such behavior occurred when he was at the school from 1980 to 1987.

Zubik served as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay from December 2003 to September 2007, when he was installed as the 12th bishop of the diocese of Pittsburgh.

The diocese did not return calls for comment Wednesday night.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh said the accusations had no basis.

"There was no factual basis for the allegation. No basis in law or in fact," Berosh said.

Berosh said his office reviewed documents in the case and made numerous attempts to meet with the man who claimed Zubik forcibly kissed him.The man declined offers to meet, and then visited the District Attorney's Office unannounced last week and made a new claim that a nun had touched him on an airplane, in full view of the passengers, Berosh said.

 the rest at GBPressGaz

Sounds like a nut.

GB cemetery worker charged with stealing guitar from casket

One way to keep your Tele from theft

Randall Jourdan will spend eternity with his beloved Fender Telecaster after all.

It was returned to Jourdan's coffin over the weekend after the grounds superintendent of Allouez Catholic Cemetery and Chapel Mausoleum was accused of taking it.

Steven Conard, 39, was charged Monday in Brown County Circuit Court with theft from a corpse. If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison and a fine of $25,000. Brown County sheriff's deputies recovered the guitar from Conard's home in nearby Bellevue, Wis.

Family members say Jourdan's hands had been wrapped around the instrument's headstock as he lay in his coffin. Jourdan, of Oneida, Wis., died Sept. 19 at age 67.

Jourdan's live-in girlfriend, Shirley Schuyler, said Jourdan owned several guitars, many of which were displayed at his wake and funeral. But the Fender Telecaster, a custom-built reproduction of one played by a famous musician, was Jourdan's favorite.

"It was his one wish to have it with him," Schuyler said. "Whether he said it jokingly or not, he always said it, and that's what we tried to do."

Deputies learned of the theft Friday from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay's director of facilities, Tammy Jo Basten, who reported the guitar missing from the casket.

The instrument had been in the casket when employees of Ryan Funeral Home transported the body Thursday to the suburban Green Bay, Wis., cemetery, the sheriff's department said. Funeral home employees verified its presence at the request of the dead man's family before putting the casket in the diocese's burial chamber.

A diocese employee became suspicious after overhearing Conard saying, "That's a Telly, a really expensive guitar. I have to have that guitar. It's too expensive to be in a crypt."

After his arrest, Conard allegedly said: "This isn't something I normally do. I just have a respect for fine musical instruments."

rest at USAToday

This has all the beginnings of a good haunting story.  Guitar starts moving around when no one touching it, man seeks help by listening to Hendrix record backward, guitar stars on fire and plays On Eagles Wings over and over until returned to casket....  you know, typical haunting.

Area around Good Help Shrine seeing changes

The farming area around the shrine is changing already.

“If the rumors are right, it’s going to look like downtown Chicago pretty soon,” says Louie Gomand, who owns a farm adjacent to the shrine.

A farm stand on his property sells vegetables and water to visitors. A sunflower costs 50 cents and a gourd 35 cents. A handwritten sign reads “bus specials.” There’s a lot more traffic, he says, but he has no complaints.
Neither does Kelli Vissers, 34. She and her husband David, 38, own two buildings in Champion.

They have converted a small trailer into the mobile On the Way Café. Kelli Vissers said she hopes to cater meals for tourists and turn one of the buildings into a bed and breakfast and the other into a full-scale café.

Barb Cornette, 58, who grew up in the area and now helps run a dairy farm a couple miles from the shrine, says some residents have mixed feelings about its growing popularity.

“Traffic has increased tremendously,” she says. “Some of the area farmers that are retired want to sell their land ... for possibly a hotel, a restaurant. They’re looking for the gold mine, unfortunately,” she said.

For decades, Cornette says, the shrine was visited mostly by local people. “We felt like this was our chapel,” she says, “and now we have to share it with everybody — which is OK if they wouldn’t try to change it” by adding restaurants and other tourist accoutrements.

GB Gazette

Thoughts from Green Bay area Catholic on first Tradtional Mass experience

Today I attended the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for the very first time. I'd wanted to go for a while, and never managed it. Luckily, however, the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest has an oratory site in Green Bay and celebrates both High and Low Masses every single Sunday. Mindy, Jason, and I went along, and I'm still processing, but I have some observations:

Having been interested in Latin Mass for some time, I've done my research, so I knew a bit what to expect and felt comfortable most of the time. I didn't have a missal with all the prayers, but I had my Handbook which contains the text of the Ordinary Form in both Latin and English as well as collects and Prefaces for each Sunday, so followed along as best I could. I didn't find it daunting to not know exactly what the priest and altar boys were saying. I knew the basics, and that was enough to foster an atmosphere of prayer.

I loved loved loved that the people there were really dressed in their Sunday Best. Many men wore suits. Most wore, at the very least, nice shirts and ties. Women were all in skirts and dresses of modest length (ie, knee-length or longer). Shoulders were covered. No tank tops, shorts, jeans, stiletto heels. Even little children were in "nicer" clothes.

continue at Hallelujah is Our Song

Appleton area Catholic HS getting new $4.7 million fine arts facility

TOWN OF MENASHA — An influential group of Neenah-Menasha businessmen is paving the way for the construction of a $4.7 million fine arts facility at St. Mary Central High School.

The Twin City Catholic Educational System announced today that it will build a 22,000-square-foot addition on the school's campus that will feature a 495-seat auditorium, a 96-seat forensics theater and state-of-the-art sound, lighting and production equipment. In addition, four new interactive electronic classrooms will be added to St. Mary Central.

The project is expected to be completed and operational by April 2013.

"The goal is to provide a superb, comprehensive educational experience for the youth of our community," said Dick Bergstrom of Bergstrom Corp., a strong supporter of Catholic education in Neenah-Menasha. "We've been working on this behind the scenes and it finally came to a conclusion early last month."

Bergstrom is one of five businessmen who raised $2 million in matching gifts for the project. The other members of the campaign leadership team are John Bergstrom and John Hogerty of Bergstrom Corp., Mike McClone of McClone Insurance Group and David Voss of Miron Construction Co.

A fundraising drive will generate the remaining $2.7 million for the addition.

The fine arts center has the support of Bishop David Ricken of the Green Bay Diocese, TCCES-affiliated parishes and the TCCES Board of Education.

continue at PostCrescent

GB Diocese prepares for first Hispanic congress

When the first Diocesan Hispanic Congress kicks off later this month at Notre Dame Academy it will be the accumulation of three years of work and planning. That is according to Fr. José Antonio Castañeda, who is organizing this event.

"Three years ago there was a group of us that wanted to put together an event that would bring together the Hispanic community. At that time, we thought that we would bring in a special speaker or have a special concert. However, it just was too expensive," said Fr. Castañeda who serves as parochial vicar for St. Bernard and St. Philip the Apostle parishes in Green Bay.

The solution that the planning committee came up with was to put together a congress which would call all the various Hispanic groups from parishes around the diocese to come together for a day of inspiration and prayer. The topic for the day's talks will be centered on the family and its challenges.

continue at The Compass

Women's Medical Forum on the Pill at St. Norbert's College

Women's Medical Forum on the Pill -- The Data. The Links. The Facts.

When: Saturday, September 24, 2011, 8:30 a.m. to noon

Where: St. Norbert College, Ft. Howard Theatre, De Pere, WI (click here for map/directions)

Speakers

• Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, breast cancer surgeon, VP/co-founder of Breast Cancer Prevention Institute

• Mercedes Arzu’ Wilson, speaker, author, president of Family of the Americas Foundation, Inc.

• Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay
Information: Click here for flyer

Contact: Christina Pallini, e-mail cpallini@gbdioc.org; phone (920) 272-8271

details at GB Diocese

Photo

250 people participate in Eucharistic procession in Appleton to pray for lives lost to abortion

From Pro-Life Wisconsin:

Approximately 250 people participated in a Eucharistic procession this past Saturday in Appleton. The event began with 8 a.m. Mass at St Pius X, 500 W. Marquette St., Appleton. The Knights of Columbus color guard joined Fr. Tom Farrell, pastor of St. Pius X, as he carried the host in a monstrance to Planned Parenthood, located at 3800 N. Gillett St.

Along the way, the procession stopped at three temporary roadside altars for prayers. The altars are on private property.

Busses returned participants to St. Pius after the 2 mile procession. Students in the pro-life Xavier Rock4Life group served lunch after the procession at St. Pius X.

The event, which began in 2008 when Fr. Quinn Mann was the associate pastor at St. Pius X, has grown into an annual community remembrance of the lives lost to abortion. Participation has far surpassed organizers’ original hopes for 50 people to pray with them.

View more photos on Flickr here.

Green Bay Packers host Bishop's Charities Game tomorrow night

• Thursday night marks another Green Bay preseason tradition: the Bishop’s Charities Game. It was first played in 1961 after Vince Lombardi was approached by the Diocese of Green Bay about playing a charitable contest in Green Bay (the Shrine contest was a fixture in Milwaukee).


• The series enjoys its 51st contest this year and has raised more than $3.5 million.


• For more than 30 years, the church handled much of the game’s business-related tasks, including game program and advertising sales, using a network of volunteers covering 14 Northeastern Wisconsin counties. The Packers assumed many of those tasks in 1994. 


• The Packers are 26-23-1 all-time in the series. They will be playing Kansas City for the fourth time in the series, with the other meetings coming in 1978, 1979 and 1992.


• Green Bay has won two straight games in the series, including a 59-24 victory over Indianapolis in 2010. Prior to that, the Packers had lost six consecutive Bishop’s Charities contests. That six-game losing streak (2003-08) came on the heels of a 12-game winning streak (1991-2002) in the series.

Packers.com

Last year was the 50th game in the series.  

The Compass put together a Facebook event for the game.

NCRegister: Good news from Our Lady of Good Help Shrine

It was here, in 1859, when the Blessed Mother appeared three times to a young Belgium immigrant, Adele Brise. The message of the Blessed Mother to Adele was to “gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”

The new rector of the shrine, Father Peter Stryker, hopes that message will continue to inspire pilgrims. Father Stryker and a fellow priest, both members of the Fathers of Mercy, a religious order of priests based in Kentucky, arrived in early July to take over the shrine’s daily operations at the request of Bishop Ricken.

“Both of us feel very welcomed and appreciated here,” said Father Stryker. “The holy traffic has indeed increased during these summer months. We feel honored to be serving at the first and thus far only site of Church-approved Marian apparitions here in the United States.”

Along with two new priests, the shrine has had to add new restrooms, expand the parking lot, and increase the corps of volunteers tenfold. Buses full of pilgrims from as far as Texas, Louisiana and Florida arrive regularly. This summer the shrine and bishop were featured on an ABC special about Marian apparitions.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/good-news-from-our-lady-of-good-help/#ixzz1UjEUXMyb

Photo

Repository of GB diocesan treasures on display at Bishop Wycislo Center

While the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion has garnered lots of publicity in recent months, another religious destination, right in the heart of Green Bay, offers visitors an up-close look at artifacts representing the area's rich Catholic heritage.

The Green Bay Diocese Museum and Cultural Center, located in the lower level of the Bishop Wycislo Center, next to St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, is home to some 700 religious objects dating back to the 19th century. The items range from liturgical vestments and sacred vessels to furnishings that once adorned St. Mary Church, which served as the diocese's pro-cathedral until the present cathedral was dedicated in 1881.

The museum opened on June 24, 2004, during the dedication ceremony for the Bishop Wycislo Center led by Bishop David Zubik. Prior to the museum's construction, diocesan artifacts were first housed in a room near the vestibule, which today serves as the bridal room, said Carol Joppe, longtime volunteer and museum caretaker. In 2000, it was moved to an area below the cathedral sacristy known as the undercroft.

continue at The Compass

Several photos also over at The Compass.  I would love to see the Chinese made vestments.  I wonder if any of the priests would be allowed to use them for Mass.  I'm always glad to see that these items are retained rather than being thrown out.  We've probably all heard stories of wreckovations where statues and altars were smashed or thrown into dumpsters.  But what was a Catholic treasure in one generation is a Catholic treasure in the next as well.