McHenry County Blog

Mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church began the day for those attending the first McHenry County Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

Boulder Ridge Country Club was the next destination.

Down Randall Road to Miller Road the cars drove.

The place was packed.

Over 500 people by one estimate.

After the welcome by event chairman Fred Wickham and a prayer by Msgr. Daniel Hermes, breakfast was served.

A prayer for our country’s leaders, out nation and families was offered by Jeff Ladd, Jr.

There were politicians courting votes.

Both Congressman Randy Hultgren and Joe Walsh were in attendance.

The two are Pro-Life.

The sanctity of human life was one of the topics of the main speaker, Raymond Cardinal Burke.

Another was birth control.

The Cardinal spoke at length.

The Cardinal’s biography identifies him as “one of the foremost authorities on Roman Catholic cannon law.

“Raymond Cardinal Burke leads with an unwavering passion for the integrity of Catholic doctrine embodied in the words of Jesus Christ,” it continues.

The Cardinal was born in 1948 in Richland Center, Wisconsin.

Ordained by Pope Paul VI in 1975 in Rome, one of his first assignments was teaching religion at Aquinas High School in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

After studying canon law at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he became the first American to hold the position of Defender of the Bond of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Catholic Church’s supreme court.

He now serves Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, to which post he was appointed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI.

McHenry County’s local prelate, Rockford-based Bishop Thomas Doran, helped celebrate the Mass and gave a talk at the breakfast.

Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote.org, also spoke to the group. It’s a lay movement of committed Catholics who “are passionate about living our the truths proclaimed by Christ and His Church in the modern world.”

Issues promoted include

• the dignity of the human person from conception until natural death
• the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman
• religious freedom for all people

But, back to political figures in McHenry County.

Candidate for Coroner Anne Majewski was in an exuberant mode.

I saw a photo of Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley.

From the program, I see that County Board member Nick Provenzano played a role.

So did County Board candidate Mary Alger.

County Board member Barbara Wheeler, who is running for State Representative, was caught posing with Patriots United Brian Kelly and Judge Michael Chmiel.

You see Jean Bianchi with Rosemary and Bob Blazier in the photo below, so I assume State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi was also present.

Below is a list of the members of the Board of Directors of the prayer breakfast.

Bill Parrot, a man who attended the specially prosecuted criminal trials of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi, writes the following.

Considering that Bianchi is holding a fund raiser at Boulder Ridge this evening (cost $75 a person/$125 per couple, walk-ins welcomed), it seems appropriate to publish it.

Rumor has it that Bianchi will announce whether or not he is running for a third term as State’s Attorney or whether he considers two directed verdicts of acquittal by Winnebago County Judge Joseph McGraw (meaning there was not enough evidence presented by the Special Prosecutor to require a defense to be presented) is vindication enough.

FREE AT LAST

Perhaps now that the final chapter in the total vindication of State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi has been written, real justice will descend upon those most responsible for this abject misuse of taxpayer dollars.

Over an arduous two-year period, this principled honest public servant has been the target of unscrupulous, sinister bottom-feeders dominating politics in McHenry County.

May the facts borne out during an unprecedented second bench trial, exonerating a dedicated virtuous man, provide bright sunlight to expose that political good-old-boy network and the sycophantic print/broadcast media so deeply invested in underwriting their focused agenda.

That same “silent majority” so minimized and ridiculed in the 70s slumbers no longer, has awakened and arisen to oppose the sleaze inherent with “business as usual”.

In this particular case, the truth has indeed set us ALL free.

In the “a picture is worth a thousand words” category is the crowd scene you see below of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s fund raiser at the Boulder Ridge Country Club.

Bianchi listed the financial accomplishments of his office, pointing to his predecessor’s expenditure on one outside attorney of “$2.8 million for employment cases alone.”

But, the highlight of the speech was his conclusion:

“In concluding, I have spoken about three ways we have saved taxpayers money,

• our check enforcement program
• out in-house attorneys and
• those attorneys who work to save taxpayer money,

and I have introduced those attorneys who battle crime daily.

“Let me thank all those here tonight for their continued support for me and our office. Your presence here tonight is humbling and your appreciation is our payback.

“And, in my parting words, I want to remind everyone that I am not a career politician.

Lou Bianchi

“I ran for office

• to do justice
• keep the community safe and
• to return the office to the people.

“And, despite any outside pressure or threats, I will continue to do that.

“I have kept my promises and, in doing so, I serve the people and those who put me in office.”

Bianchi is not on the ballot this year.