Had it not been for a Pentecost prayer vigil, St. Anthony Catholic Church in downtown Davenport would not have been open at 5 p.m. on a Sunday night, said its pastor, Father Rudolph Juarez. Tenants fleeing from a partially collapsed apartment building a little more than a block away were grateful for that blessing the night of May 28.
Gusts of wind flapped the altar cloth and rippled the clergy’s vestments during Mass on the farm and the blessing of the seeds in the Pieper family’s cavernous hoop barn April 15.
An idea began brewing in Patrick Schmadeke’s head as he listened to an interview with Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart on the Synod of Bishops in 2023 and the process leading up to it.
