Thank You from Fr. Bala Allam & St Joseph Catholic Church in Dondapadu, India

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Dearest Fr. Ryan and St. Francis de Sales Parishioners – Hearty greetings from Fr. Bala Allam and St. Joseph Catholic Church, Dondapadu, India. I send along many thanks to you all for your generous prayers and financial support. These prayers and your monetary support is a great help in rebuilding the Immaculate Conception Mission Church so that generations to come may have a place to celebrate the sacraments. No words can explain my sincere thanks and gratitude. May the good Lord continue to bless Fr Ryan and the parishioners of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church.

I hope to be in the United States this summer and will make every effort visit St. Francis de Sales and offer Mass at your altar. Thank you very much.

In Union of prayers,
Fr Bala Allam

Tech Team Summer Recruitment!

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We are looking for high school & college aged young adults interested in joining our Tech Team! The Tech Team is our expert set of trained individuals who will learn how to use our streaming and projecting equipment for Masses!

You will work in the loft helping stream Masses to our parishioners on Facebook & YouTube, as well as projecting slides during Mass!

No experience needed. We will train you. A stipend is being offered for this important work! Email plynch@stfrancislz.org if you are interested.

Register for Hoopsters Basketball Camp!

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Registration is open for Hoopsters Basketball Camp!

Dear Parents - It's that time of year again to start thinking about summer activities and the Hoopsters Basketball camp! The camp date is July 17-21st. The morning session runs from 9-11am and the afternoon session is 11;30am-1:30pm. Camp will be held in the West Parking Lot of St Francis de Sales Parish in Lake Zurich. We will be working with the kids on basic skills and how positive attitude and strength is demonstrated off the court.

MORNING SESSION \ 1st-4th Grade (2023-2024 school year) \ 9am - 11am

AFTERNOON SESSION \ 5th-8th Grade (2023-2024 school year) \ 11:30am - 1:30pm

REGISTER TODAY AT

Know a teen who wants to volunteer? email Ingrid.Freeland@astellas.com

Reminder to lock your car doors in parking lot at all times, especially during Mass!

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Fr Ryan wants to remind us all to be diligent and aware of our surroundings while on parish grounds - Kirk Galasso and his son, Mike, noticed a suspicious vehicle while setting up for the 11am Parking Lot Mass and reported it as maybe the one who stole a purse from another parishioner a week or two before that. We are blessed to have people looking out for us and keeping us safe.

Attention SFS Alumni!

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If you are an alumni of SFS, please join our new Facebook Page - St Francis De Sales of Lake Zurich, IL Alumni Association. Please also help us grow this group by sharing this Facebook Page with alumni, former students, parents of alumni and former students, and SFS teachers and administration - both present and past - that are in your network.

It's the Association's goal to keep these groups connected, share memories, and continue to evolve the school through shared experiences and feedback. This platform will share current SFS news as well as upcoming school and alumni events!

Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide - Next Meeting June 21st

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Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide - Next Meeting June 21st

The Catholic Charities LOSS PROGRAM was started by Fr Charles Rubey in 1979 with 3 couples who had lost children to suicide. At that time, they would meet regularly in their homes. Today this program has spread throughout the Archdiocese and beyond bringing hope and meaning to those affected by suicide.

Open monthly group meetings will be held at the Parish and Ministry Center on the 3rd WEDS of EACH MONTH; 7-9pm.

www.catholiccharities.net/LOSS

Anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide is invited to attend. **Please register if you are new to this program by calling (312) 655-7283

Suicide loss is complicated and traumatic. Together we walk through this specific type of grief and offer each other support. A licensed clinician and a trained facilitator will run each meeting. No matter how recent or how long ago you experienced loss by suicide -all are welcome! Any questions, please call Tish Guinter (847) 293-4332

SFS HELP WANTED for the 2023-24 School Year

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LUNCH SERVER

The hours are 10:30 am - 12:30 pm, Monday through Friday. Duties include learning and using the cashless register, serving up meals to the students during all 3 lunch periods, and picking up the pizza from Costco on Fridays. If you are interested in this position, please email lunchpos@stfrancislz.org.

SCHOOL NURSE & ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Full-time (7 AM - 3 PM) position beginning in June, with reduced hours during the month of July. If you or someone you know has a medical background and is interested in working in the school office, please email mkeller@stfrancislz.org.

AFTERCARE ASSISTANT

Part-time (2 PM - 4:30/5 PM, Monday - Friday) to help the Aftercare Lead in supervising children, treating all children with dignity and respect, and ensuring their safety and well-being within a home-like faith-based setting. The assistant will have a Christian faith with a desire to grow in discipleship. If you are interested in this position, please email mkeller@stfrancislz.org.

Donations needed!

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Our brothers and sisters at Our Lady of Holy Family on West Harrison Street in Chicago have asked for our help. They are putting together hygiene kits for migrants and asylum seekers that have been bussed to Chicago from Texas and are looking for toiletries and other items.

A full list of items needed can be found below:

  • gallon size Ziploc bags

  • backpacks

  • small towels

  • blankets, small or travel size

  • diapers

  • baby bottles

  • sanitary pads

  • Flip flops

  • toothbrushes

  • toothpaste

  • comb or brush

  • socks

  • underwear

  • refillable water bottles

  • body wipes or bar soap

  • wash cloths

  • deodorant

The blue bins will be in the Gathering Space for the next two weekends (June 10th - 11th and June 17th – 18th) for collection of these goods. Thank you for your prayers and generosity.

Thank You from Youth Ministry!

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THE CASTLE RETREAT IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR ST FRANCIS DE SALES CONFIRMATION PROGRAM. THESE RETREATS ARE LED BY WONDERFUL HIGH SCHOOL TEENS AND ADULT VOLUNTEERS.

TO EVERY RETREATANT AND THEIR FAMILY, THANK YOU FOR BEING SO OPEN TO THE WEEKEND AND SHARING YOUR STORY WITH US.

TO EVERY TEEN LEADER AND THEIR FAMILY, THANK YOU FOR DEDICATING A WEEKEND TO SHARING GOD'S LOVE WITH YOUR PEERS. WE ARE SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU!

TO EVERY ADULT LEADER WHO CHAPERONED THESE RETREAT WEEKENDS, WE TRULY COULDN'T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU.

Thank you: Traci Dahlinger, Kathy Fuell, Maria Galuppo, Lexi Hitchens, Pam Lynch, Mimi McGlauchlin, Mikey McGlauchlin, Gary Radwanski, Sara Webster, Georgia Wiersma, Bill Weismann, and Adrienne Virgilio

TO EVERY PARISHIONER WHO PRAYED FOR US, THANK YOU! THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS WITH US EVERY SECOND OF OUR RETREAT WEEKENDS.

WE CANNOT WAIT FOR OUR APRIL 15th CONFIRMATION!

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE EYES TO SEE GOD'S LOVE IN YOUR LIFE!

Thank you Confirmation Leaders

This two-year Confirmation program consists of monthly sessions that include great content and wonderful small group discussions. Special thank you to our Confirmation Small Group Leaders: Anne Quast, Bill Weismann, Cathy Jones, Connie Snider, Gary Radwanski, Georgia Wiersma, Karen Nolan, Rose Weismann, and Kathy Fuell.

Cardinal Blase Cupich Response to Illinois Attorney General's Report on Clergy Child Sex Abuse

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Dear Friends in Christ,

From my earliest days as a bishop, I have dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by putting the child at the center of my actions. In my experience, whether the abuse happened in the recent or distant past, the survivor speaks from the pain they suffered as that wounded and betrayed child. The Archdiocese of Chicago has long sought to heal them and prevent this crime from occurring again. I am personally committed to applying the highest level of vigilance to these efforts and to further strengthening our safeguards against abuse.

Today, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul published a report (the Report) on his office’s investigation of allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy in the six Illinois Catholic dioceses over a period of nearly 90 years. The Report addresses both how dioceses responded to such allegations in decades past and current policies that help ensure the safety of children and support the healing of survivors. We have not studied the report in detail but have serious concerns about data that might be misunderstood or are presented in ways that could be misleading. It is therefore important that we state what we know to be true. For example:

The Attorney General referenced 600 calls to his clergy hotline. To date not one has been referred to us for action – whether victim assistance, investigation or compensation. If any of the 600 calls contained an allegation it is important that it be made public.

The Attorney General claims to “disclose” 451 names of individuals with substantiated allegations. As to these names:

  • 451 is all 6 dioceses and includes religious order priests and brothers.

  • 451 includes the priests already on the 6 websites of these dioceses.

  • All who pertain to and were known by the Archdiocese, were reported to civil authorities and “none were undisclosed, none were ‘hiding in plain sight’ since at least 2002.” In addition, in 2002, the Archdiocese did a look back, disclosing to the States Attorney all previous allegations found in its files.

  • We do list religious found by their orders to be substantiated.

  • 149 still “undisclosed” men are mostly religious order members who are not on our site; they are not undisclosed, and they are under the supervision and report to their respective order. Attorney General Raoul distinguished between dioceses and religious orders, saying “this was an investigation of the dioceses, not the orders,” recognizing they are different. However their totals include both.

  • Attorney General Raoul said the Church is more worthy of investigation because it is a trusted religious organization. We think all children deserve to be protected regardless of whether they are cared for by a religious or secular institution; it isn’t fair or wise to focus only on the Catholic Church, which has made the greatest strides in this area.

  • Statute of limitations: we offer care, compassion (pastoral outreach) and even compensation to all who come forward, regardless of the statute of limitations.

  • Attorney General Raoul recommends outsiders being involved in overseeing our internal church investigations. We have had an independent review board with lay people overseeing these investigations since 1992, which is why the number of abuse incidents has dropped so dramatically.

We must think first of the survivors of sexual abuse who carry the burden of these crimes through their lives. On behalf of the archdiocese, I apologize to all who have been harmed by the failure to prevent and properly respond to child sexual abuse by clerics. Survivors will forever be in our prayers, and we have devoted ourselves to rooting out this problem and providing healing to victims.

For more than 30 years, the Archdiocese of Chicago has been at the forefront of developing and improving policies and programs to address the scourge of child sexual abuse and to support survivors. Our policies and procedures, first adopted in 1992, have served as a model for organizations and professionals dealing with this difficult issue. I hope the attention drawn to the issue by the Report will encourage those who work with minors to learn from our experience and take steps to protect all children from sexual abuse.

Here are some key facts about our efforts in the Archdiocese of Chicago:

  • Since 1992, we have maintained one of the first and largest victim-survivor assistance programs in the nation. We provide assistance to anyone making an allegation, regardless of whether the accused is living or whether the allegation is substantiated.

  • No cleric with even one substantiated allegation against him is in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago. When we learn of an allegation of abuse, we act promptly, report it to civil authorities, remove the accused from ministry and investigate the allegation. Allegations are submitted to our lay-majority Independent Review Board for investigation. In accordance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth, clerics found to have committed even one act of child sexual abuse are permanently removed from ministry.

  • The archdiocese has, to our knowledge, reported all allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy to civil authorities, including the oldest allegations. We report these allegations regardless of whether the accused is alive or dead, a diocesan priest, an extern priest from another diocese or a religious order priest. We consider an allegation to have been made even if the report is made anonymously, has incomplete facts (such as the name of the priest or parish) or is made by a third party, and we report all such allegations to civil authorities. It is important to emphasize that, to our knowledge, there are no “hidden,” “undisclosed” or “unreported” allegations of child sexual abuse by the clergy of this archdiocese.

  • Under our recently amended policies, allegations against deceased priests who have not yet been placed on our website list are processed by our Independent Review Board. If an allegation against a deceased priest is substantiated, the priest’s name is added to the list.

  • When an allegation of child sexual abuse involves a religious order priest working in a ministry of the archdiocese, such as a parish assignment, we remove the accused’s faculties to minister in the archdiocese, contact the religious order and help facilitate the survivor’s report. Every religious order with members living in the archdiocese is mandated to have a process for investigating such allegations.

  • Since 2006, we have published the names of diocesan priests with substantiated allegations of abuse on our website. In 2014, we published more than 20,000 documents from these priests’ files. These documents remain on our website.

  • We update our website list as needed and have expanded it to include the names of religious order priests whose order has substantiated an accusation against them and who have been assigned to a ministry of the Archdiocese of Chicago such as a parish.

  • We conduct background screenings for archdiocesan clergy, employees and volunteers and implement a comprehensive safe-environment training program for adults and children. Over the last two years, we trained more than 112,000 children in an age-appropriate manner on how to recognize, resist and report abusive behavior. To date, we have trained more than 263,000 adults in 3,700 training sessions. As is required by the USCCB Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth, (the Charter) we audit our parish and school safe environment programs every year and, in turn, the archdiocese’s compliance with the Charter is audited by the USCCB.

  • Additionally, we have worked in collaboration with survivors to respond to their need for healing. This partnership has led to the development of the Healing Garden, an annual Mass for Hope and Healing and Pinwheel Service for Child Abuse Prevention, survivor-led peace circles, and the Healing Voices magazine.

  • We always seek to improve our child protection and victim support efforts. We have repeatedly had our processes, policies and files reviewed by independent experts to help ensure we remain current with best practices.

In addition to these steps, the Archdiocese of Chicago fully cooperates with law enforcement, including with the Attorney General’s investigation. We have made our employees available for interviews and provided access to hundreds of thousands of documents. We are committed to continuously reviewing our policies and will carefully consider any changes recommended by the Attorney General. Indeed, the archdiocese has already implemented a number of recommendations the Attorney General made during the course of the investigation such as expansion of the parameters of our website list. More resources are available on our website at agresponse.archchicago.org.

I invite other institutions that care for children and civil authorities to join us in this work and consider adopting the procedures we have developed over the past three decades, so that all children are kept safe. Let us continue to pray for all those harmed by abuse.

Let us reflect the light of Christ for them and be messengers of His Good News to all we encounter.

I will continue to pray for you and your families as I remain sincerely yours in Christ,

Scripture Study // Chosen Season 3

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Beginning April 19th, 2023 we will gather on Wednesday evenings at 7pm at the Ministry Center to continue to examine how God was at work in the lives of the first disciples using Scripture and video content from The Chosen, a critically acclaimed series on the life of Jesus.

We will then discuss how God is at work in our own lives and how we can follow Him today.​

For people who choose to join through Zoom, the sessions will begin Wednesday, April 19th at 6:30pm.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Holy Week 2023

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We would like to invite you to come and join us as we experience Holy Week here at St Francis de Sales Parish. See the schedule below.

Monday, April 3

8:30am & 12 Noon Mass

11:00am Confessions

Tuesday, April 4

8:30am & 12 Noon Mass

11:00am Confessions

6:30pm Living Stations of the Cross by SFS 5th Grade

Wednesday, April 5

8:30am & 12 Noon Mass (Noon Streamed)

2:00pm-3:30pm & 5:00pm-6:30pm Confessions

Holy Thursday, April 6

8:30am Mass

7:00pm Mass of the Last Supper

11:00pm Night Prayers

Good Friday, April 7 - The Lord’s Passion

10:00am-11:45am Confessions

Noon-3:00pm Tre Ore

(Stations of the Cross & Reflection on the 7 Last Words of Christ)

1:00pm-2:30pm Confessions

3:00pm Passion of the Lord Service

7:00pm Tenebrae

(Meditation Service of Darkness & Light)

Holy Saturday, April 8

10:00am–11:45am Confessions

12 Noon & 1:00pm Blessing of Easter Baskets

(1pm in Parking Lot)

7:00pm Easter Vigil Mass in the Holy Night

Easter Sunday

The Resurrection of Our Lord

6:30am Easter Mass - Church

9:00am Easter Mass - Church & Fr Valker Hall

(also streamed on Facebook & YouTube)

11:00am Easter Mass - Church & Fr Valker Hall

(also broadcasted to West Parking Lot)

12:30pm Easter Mass - Church