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Father Finnell dies after fall; funeral Jan. 3 in Morton

MORTON — A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 3, at Blessed Sacrament Parish here for Father Eugene L. Finnell, pastor emeritus who guided the Morton parish for 28 years.

Father Finnell, a former director of vocations and superintendent of Catholic education for the Diocese of Peoria, died Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008, at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center from a head injury sustained in a Christmas Eve fall on an icy road near his residence in rural Mackinaw. He was 78.

Visitation was to take place from 2 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2, at the church, followed by a service of remembrance and recitation of the rosary.

Services at St. Vincent’s, Peoria, for Fr. Amar, 64

A funeral Mass was offered Tuesday, Dec. 30, at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Peoria for Father Mubarak Anwar Amar, a former pastor of parishes in Elkhart, Mount Pulaski, and DePue who in recent years had been on leave of absence for health reasons.

Father Amar, 64, died on Friday, Dec. 26, 2008, at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, was principal celebrant of the funeral Mass, with Father Stephen Engelbrecht, pastor of St. Malachy’s Parish in Rantoul, as homilist. Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery in Peoria.

Nun to share truths about climate crisis

DAVENPORT, Iowa — There’s a new resource for champions of the environment on both sides of the Mississippi River, and she offers words of hope for the future along with words of caution.

“It’s not too late,” said Sister Cathleen Real, CHM, who was one of 135 men and women chosen to take part in The Climate Project’s first-ever Faith Community Training. Among the presenters was Nobel laureate Al Gore, who sounded the alarm about global warming in the 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth.”

“There are many things happening and many things we can do,” Sister Cathleen told The Catholic Post when she returned from the training session in Nashville, Tenn., last fall. “It’s not too late, but we need to change our attitudes toward the way we live.”