St. Mary's Church of Pecatonica

Welcome to the website for St. Mary's Church of Pecatonica, the Roman Catholic church located in Pecatonica, Illinois, and covering portions of Winnebago and Stephenson Counties, including the municipalities of Pecatonica, Ridott (partially), Seward, and Winnebago.

SPECIAL NOTE: MEMORY LIGHTS PROGRAM COMING SOON!  TO ORDER PERSONALIZED ORNAMENTS, PLEASE PRINT AND THEN FILL OUT THE FORM UNDER "EVENTS & NEWS" AND THEN "MEMORY LIGHTS CELEBRATION" AND SEND IT WITH YOUR CHECK TO FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH AT THE ADDRESS INDICATED ON THE FORM.  AS IT IS DUE NOVEMBER 27TH, YOU MIGHT WANT TO EMAIL OR CALL THE FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH TO MAKE SURE THEY CAN MEET THE ORDER IF THEY RECEIVE IT AFTER THAT DATE.  THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS IS: CHURCHOFFICE@FIRSTLUTHPEC.COM. THEIR OFFICE NUMBER IS (815) 239-2390. SORRY FOR THE LATE NOTICE.

ST. MARY ANNIVERSARY MASS AND DINNER: To celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the dedication of our church and the 150^th anniversary of our first resident pastor assigned to the parish, Bishop David Malloy will celebrate a special Mass at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 3rd. Anyone may attend the Mass, but the dinner after the Mass will only be for those who made a reservation. Celebrate!

WE NEED YOUR CHRISTMAS BAKED GOODS! St. Mary’s Guild will again take part in the annual Pecatonica Christmas Walk Saturday, December 3rd with a bake sale and free hot coffee. The sale will be held inside Green Bean Academy, 503 Main St. If you can donate please let us know on the sign up sheet on the bulletin board. Bake sale is from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Bring your donated baked goods anytime after 8 a.m. to the Green Bean Academy. Proceeds benefit parish projects and donations to local charities including Pecatonica Food Pantry and St. Elizabeth Catholic Community Center.
 

After the 11:15 AM Mass on Sunday, July 10th, we held an introductory meeting on the parish's building needs and issues.  We thank the 24 people who came to that meeting and the interest shown by others who were not able to attend that meeting.  The purpose of the meeting was to give some history of the old rectory and proposals to renovate and expand it.  The meeting was also meant to let members of the parish know about the state of the old rectory, the high costs to renovate it, and some ideas for a new building that might replace it.  We have no definite plans as of yet, but we would like parishioners to consider and suggest any ideas for features that any new building should have.  If there are any church buildings they know of that might have features we would like, we would like to know more about them.  We discussed some examples of church structures that included classrooms and large meeting rooms.  We will need to get information and guidance from the diocese before proceeding, especially as to costs of work we might be considering.

Once we get more information, we hope to have another meeting which will include a tour of the old rectory and discussion of any information the diocese has given to us since the meeting we had on July 10th.  The project may take several years to complete, but we need to start now to consider and to plan.

Stay tuned and keep praying!

We thank all who helped at or came to the 66th Annual Church Dinner that was held Sunday, October 16^th, with serving from 11:30-2:30. Preliminary results are that the parish earned about $6,000 from the event.  More important than that is the human intereaction and the service of others, both of which help us grow in love for God and one another.

We are starting to plan for next year's parish dinner.  If any parishioners are willing to assist in the planning and participating in some segment of putting on next year's dinner, please contact Inga Danko by leaving a message at our parish office which we will then relay to Inga.

Please also read the letter Inga and MaryJo Seger wrote updating us on the parish dinner found under "Parish Dinner" under "Events & News."

A mailing went out on December 2, 2021, to all the parishioners for whom we had an address.  If you received the mailing, please fill out the parish registration form that was included in that mailing, and return it to us in the envelope that was also included in that mailing, either in the box marked for that near the back of church or by mail.  This will help us keep our database up to date so that we can serve you better.  If someone in your household is Catholic and you live within the boundaries of this parish (which you can determine by going on the website for the diocese (www.rockforddiocese.org) and looking under "Parishes" and "Search by Boundary" and typing in your street address), and you did not receive this mailing, please print out the parish registration form from the link below, and fill it out and send it to us either when you come to church here or by mail to: St. Mary's Church, P.O. Box 656, Pecatonica, IL  61063.

For some links on life matters, see the links below.