Rockford Diocese plans Mass for 10,000

The Rockford Diocese will kick off its centennial celebration with a 10,000-person Mass on Sept. 23 on the Northern Illinois University campus.

The 2 p.m. Mass at NIU's Convocation Center starts a yearlong celebration of prayer to commemorate the 1908 founding of the diocese, which consists of more than 100 parishes in Kane, McHenry and nine other counties.

In a letter to the faithful, Bishop Thomas Doran wrote: "The Rockford Diocese has enjoyed great growth over this past century as the church seeks to make the gospel known to all those in northern Illinois."

The diocese has grown to 109,000 registered households. Tickets for the Mass have been distributed to parishes based on the number of registered parishioners at each location.

A 400-person orchestra and bell choir, directed by Fergal King, director of music and liturgy at St. Mary Margaret Church in Algonquin, will perform a special centennial hymn written by King.

Churches across the diocese will display centennial banners, which feature an image of Mary, Jesus' mother, painted by a 17th-century Spanish artist. Mary is the patron saint of both the Rockford diocese and the United States.

The centennial celebration will culminate with a Mass in 2008 at St. Peter Cathedral in Rockford featuring Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago.