By Jennika Baines
Sun Assoc. Editor

Clean up has begun on the site of the former St. Louis Church, which collapsed in the City of Oswego on the afternoon of Sunday, July 25. The building, located on a busy corner in the city, tumbled in on itself under the heavy rains that fell during Oswego’s annual Harborfest.

St. Louis was closed in 2000 and the sale of the building to the Oswego Arts Collaborative was within weeks of being finalized.

The organization, which promotes arts in the community, was looking for a place to use as a performing arts center, and wanted the St. Louis building because of its central location. They hoped to retain the historic integrity of the building as much as possible in their renovations.

“It was a miracle that nobody was hurt, with 100,000 people in town for Harborfest,” said Murray Gould, chair of the facilities committtee for the Oswego Arts Collaborative. “Harborfest is just across the street and the jazz concert had just let out. Plus the church is only 12 feet away from the road, which is Route 104, the main highway through the city.”

At the time, the middle section of the church had collapsed, but Father Timothy Elmer, chancellor of the diocese, said it was necessary to pull the rest down. “That night that it collapsed the City of Oswego said ‘It’s just got to come down, it’s not safe,’” he said.

By Connie Berry
Sun editor

Religious education, or faith formation, doesn’t consist only of CYO dances and May crownings. Today’s catechists are expected to keep their own faith alive, engage parents in participating in their children’s faith formation and still help with youth rallies and Christmas pageants.

The diocesan Office of Faith Formation is offering a workshop Thursday, Aug. 26 at the Bishop Harrison Center, 1342 Lancaster Ave., in Syracuse which will offer ways to help bring parents into their children’s faith formation process. Leisa Anslinger, a well-known parish leader and speaker based in Ohio, will be the presenter. She says parents learning alongside their children makes for a win-win situation.

“The families grow in their relationship with Christ and the parish becomes filled with people who are engaged in the life of the parish and who share the Gospel with their family and friends,” Anslinger said.

Sister Katie Eiffe, CSJ, is diocesan director of the Office of Faith Formation and her mantra has always been, “faith formation is a lifelong process.” She said parents are the first catechists for their children. “This is a topic we’re constantly aware of. We want to energize and invite and encourage parents for faith formation for themselves and their children,” she said.

At the workshop, parish leaders, pastors and catechists can learn how to coach parents to form their own children in the Catholic faith.

“We establish a positive partnership in which parents learn alongside their children,” Anslinger explained. “The interaction between parent and child increases the child’s learning and the family grows in the eagerness to live their faith at home.”

There are resources available through Our Sunday Visitor Curriculum, Twenty-Third Publications and Anslinger’s “Great Expectations” workshops which will help religious educators in this endeavor. The sacraments are a good place to start. As a child goes through baptism, first penance, first Communion and later, confirmation, parents can take an active role in the process. Catechists and pastors can step up and continue to encourage parents to stay involved. Sister Katie hopes parish leadership takes the opportunity to attend the August workshops her office has offered for the past four or five years.

The small wooden chapel at Lourdes Camp on Skaneateles Lake is a dark and peaceful place perfect for quiet contemplation.

Until, that is, it is filled to capacity with sun-tanned children with wet hair, tie-dyed shirts and lots of new summer friends. Then it becomes a chapel filled with happiness, noise and life.

That was something Bishop Robert Cunningham learned on his first visit to the camp to celebrate Mass there on July 21. This was the first time any bishop had visited the camp, and he used the opportunity to encourage the children to become what God wants them to be.

“How do we know what our gifts are? How do we know what He wants us to do? Pray. Ask for His help and his guidance as we try to make decisions in our lives,” Bishop Cunningham told those gathered.

Lourdes Camp is a Catholic summer camp for children of all faiths between the ages of seven and 14. Children can stay overnight in the cabins or come just for a day of canoeing, swimming, soccer, lacrosse or any of the other games and crafts that fill the day.

Mike Preston, the camp’s director, said the camp had 253 children and was currently at capacity. He’s been at the camp for 30 of its 68 years, and he said he loves seeing how the kids who were once so worried about spending their first night grow in confidence to one day become camp counselors. That was the case with Rachel Dodge of Camillus, who provided the first reading at the Mass. She said she was a camper for eight summers and has been a counselor for the past three summers.