St. Anthony Catholic Church Davenport, Iowa Email Newsletter

Corrected Copy!

Herbie Bass, the Shingles Virus and How St. Ignatius Would Have Us Respond to Racism by John Cooper

George Floyd

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

We want racism and everything that comes with it to go away as quickly as we do the coronavirus. Hopefully, someday soon, we will have a vaccine that eliminates the coronavirus. Unfortunately, racism’s root cause is sin and it will more than likely be with us until the end of time. For years I taught college theology classes and whenever the subject of Judaism came up, I asked my Jewish friend Herbie Bass to come into class as a guest speaker. Herbie was in his 80’s, but still full of vim and vigor. He practiced law during the day and spoke about Judaism at churches in the evening. The only challenge with Herbie was keeping him on task. He liked to veer off into all sorts of areas of social justice. What he said was always thought provoking and good for students to reflect upon, so I let him go. One day when he was speaking, he got on the topic of racism. He drew an analogy of it to the shingles virus. To get shingles, you have to have had chickenpox at some point in your life. The virus that causes the infection, varicella zoster virus, remains latent in nerve cells. Herbie likened the racism that’s existed for 400 years in America to a virus that remains latent in our collective psyche. It rears its ugly head just like shingles does with the murder of a black man jogging in his neighborhood (which happened a few weeks ago in Brunswick, Georgia). It becomes an even worse case when black persons are killed by the very police who are sworn to protect them. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING...

CHURCH OPEN FOR PRIVATE PRAYER Sunday through Friday 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Closed on Saturdays

Preparing for Our Merger with St. Mary's McAnthony Window Now Includes Hispanic Food

Gloria Mancilla from the St. Mary Hispanic community together with her daugther Mia and her parents Reyna and Evodio brought a load of Hispanic food for the McAnthony Window food pantry last Friday. Father Apo and Kim Noftsker were both in the parking lot to greet Gloria and her family and to thank them for their generosity.

Gloria broke down packages of food and toiletries into smaller to containers so that it could be spread across more patrons. She also marked the packages in English and Spanish. See picture of the display.

Which of the Four Gospel Writers is Depicted in this Painting on the ceiling in front of the altar at St. Anthony? Here's what Joe Scott wrote about this painting in his wonderful work called The Artwork of St. Anthony . Joe writes, "On the east side, there is a creature with a lion’s head (nobility) and the beginning words of Mark’s gospel in Latin: “Initium Evangelii Iesu Christi” (This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ)." To learn more about the artwork in St. Anthony Church, click here for Joe Scott's narrative description and view Henri Chapdelaine's corresponding photography of the art.

Dear Parishioners, Dear Parishioners, Our country and our Quad Cities community is once again dealing with the painful reality of racism. We pray for George Floyd and his family. We pray for the officer who has been charged with his murder. We pray for healing and reconciliation. We are also saddened by the death of Jerry Voss, the husband of Judy Voss who is a very active member of our parish. Please join us in praying for the repose of Jerry's soul as well as for comfort for Judy in the days ahead. Jerry's arrangements are being handled by Halligan, McCabe, Devries Funeral Home. May Almighty God bless you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yours in Christ, Father Apo

First Friday Divine Mercy Chaplet and Rosary

Join us in praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Rosary this Friday at 7 p.m. All you need to do is... DIAL - (312) 626-6799 ENTER ID 858 1668 7909 # You DO NOT need internet to participate.

Results of How You Would Describe Your Relationship with the Blessed Mother Mary She’s an acquaintance of mine. - 0% She’s a friend of mine. - 7.7% She’s like a friend who I wish I was closer with. - 19.2% She’s like a Mother to me. - 19.2% She’s everything to me. - 53.8%

Where's God in This? With the corona virus and now the racial unrest, we may ask ourselves, where's God in this? Popular Catholic author Matthew Kelly tells a cute story about where's God in this. Two kindergartners, Jimmy and Johnny were constantly getting in trouble for talking in class. Their teacher kept threatening to send them to the principal's office. Finally, one day, she'd had enough. She said, "you two go to the principal's office." She called ahead and told the principal to scare them a little bit and send them back down to her class. As they walked down the hallway to the principal's office, they talked about what would happen to them. What would the principal do to them? Much to their dismay, when they walked in the principal said, "I'll take you each, one at a time in my office." Johnny went in first. The principal asked him several questions about his talking in class and he tried to answer. One question really stumped him. The principal asked, "Where's God in this?" Johnny didn't know how to answer. When he walked out into the main office where Jimmy was sitting, nervously getting ready for his meeting with the principal, Jimmy anxiously asked Johnny, "What happened? Are we in big trouble?" Johnny shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know, but he thinks that God did it!"