St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Tiskilwa to close July 20

St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Tiskilwa’s Main Street will close Saturday, July 20.

The pastor, the Rev. Father Scott Potthoff, is arranging a farewell event with a 6 p.m. celebration of Mass followed by fellowship in the church hall. All those with a special connection to St. Mary are invited to bid a fond farewell.

Following a two-year study involving parish leaders from 156 parishes throughout the 26-county Peoria Diocese, Bishop Louis Tylka announced the findings and his decision in early July.

Low attendance and a shortage of priests has led St. Mary’s to become one of the 75 parishes to be shuttered and absorbed into larger parishes. On July 21, the church and rectory will be closed and the church structure’s status will be reassigned by the Peoria Diocese, thus no longer being considered a sacred space. Parishioners will become part of St. Louis parish in Princeton. However, St. Mary’s two cemeteries, the 1873 cemetery south of Tiskilwa as well as the 1864 “Old St. Mary’s Cemetery” 4 miles west of town, will be maintained and continue to be used for burials.

In the 1997 church directory, there were 96 families and more than 250 parishioners. Today, that number is about 12 families.

St. Mary’s Church has a long and proud history in Tiskilwa. Beginning in the mid-1860s and even after the current structure was completed in 1881, the faithful were served by visiting priests (between 1867 and 1905) from Mendota, Geneseo and later Sheffield. Prior to 1881, Masses were celebrated in the homes of parishioners and in the Union School, which stood on the present site of St. Mary’s.

Old-timers told that around 1898, Father Mannion from Sheffield frequently arrived on the 9 a.m. train on Saturday and returned to Sheffield on the 5 p.m. train on Sunday. He often stayed overnight at the home of Jim Meegan (depot agent) and rode one of Jim’s horses around the countryside to visit the sick, administer sacraments and many times enjoy a meal with friends.

In 1905, the first resident pastor, Father George Pierson, enlarged the church building by extending it to the south and installing three stained glass windows above the altar. He also purchased a large pipe organ (still in the choir loft today) and erected a steel tower at the southwest corner to support the several-ton bell, cast in Baltimore in 1908. When the tower became unsafe in the 1940s, the bell was taken down and stored. It was later reinstalled in a contemporary setting in front of the church.

In 1923, the present parsonage was built, featuring a composite style of architecture and unusual Gothic arched windows in the chapel area at the east end of the structure. The gabled windows on the second story display perpendicular English Gothic tracery. The pastor at the time was Father Edwin Welsh, a tennis enthusiast who also set up a grass court on the large south lawn for all villagers to enjoy.

Throughout the decades, St. Mary’s hosted one of the summer highlights of Tiskilwa’s village life, the Lawn Social, featuring homemade ice cream, guileless games of chance, delicious food, clowns, bingo and children’s entertainment. This annual festivity began in the early 1900s and lasted through mid-1990s. In its heyday, scores of townspeople congregated throughout the evening on the east lawn of the church. Local kids lined up for their chances to “Go Fish” and win a cherished prize merely by launching a fishing line over a deep blue screen. Beginning in the 1950s, everyone looked forward to enjoying barbecue sandwiches made with Mary Palmieri’s special recipe.

In addition to serving as a comforting setting for the sorrows as well as a lovely backdrop for the sacraments and joys in local life, the Tiskilwa parish created many fond memories. Scores of children attended catechism classes on Saturday mornings (grade schoolers) or Wednesday nights (THS students). The choir was always a point of pride for the parish, with numerous organists over the years, including Cleo Brown and Catherine Ary, both of whom served for decades. Many remember the rich baritone voices of Bernie Cotter and Donnie Sims wafting from the choir loft in the back of the church. After forming in 1923, an active Altar and Rosary Society sponsored countless fundraisers including bazaars, plays, chicken dinners and much-anticipated ravioli suppers.

In 1955, Father Louis Schaechter oversaw the construction of the church hall, attached to the east side of the church. In 1964, the formerly white clapboard siding on the church was replaced with a Nustone covering to visually blend the church and the hall.

St. Mary’s longest-serving pastor (1960-1981) was Father Casimir Ruibys, a “displaced person” born in Lithuania. After the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania in 1940, Father Ruibys and his brother escaped to Rome in 1945, and eventually he entered the Peoria Diocese 1949. During his decades in Tiskilwa, Ruibys became a friend to many residents throughout the community. As he walked to pick up his mail, he often stopped for a visit at businesses all along Main Street, as well as reaching out warmly to the other Tiskilwa pastors, numbering seven at that time.

Ruibys also over saw the final major renovation of the altar area of the church in 1961, covering the three stained-glass altar windows and hiring an artist to create a large mosaic mural of Mary, the patron of the church, on the soaring wall behind the altar.

Since the 1905 appointment of its first resident pastor, Pierson, the church has been served by 23 priests. From 1905 to 1910, Pierson also served Princeton as a mission of Tiskilwa. In recent years, these priests have served St. Mary’s: Fathers Guthrie, O’Neal, Driscoll, Thieryoung, Ramer, Stirniman, Creegan and, currently, Father Scott Potthoff.

Coincidentally, Potthoff, who will celebrate the final Mass, is the grandson of longtime parishioners, Bob and Sue Wright of rural Tiskilwa.

“I’ve been here only a short time, but I’ve felt very welcomed by the whole community,” Potthoff said. “I want to thank current and past parishioners for their faithfulness. Each of our stories is part of God’s story of His love for His people. May He bless us as we continue to live out His plan in our lives.”

Everyone understands that a church is not a building but rather the people in the congregation. Nevertheless, if these walls could talk, they’d sing, said Cecille Gerber, a local historian.