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the mokena messenger | March 26, 2020 | 15
Churches turn to technology in time of crisis
3
T.J. Kremer III, Editor
As Rev. Dindo Billote of
St. Mary Catholic Church
in Mokena prepared for
Sunday Mass this past
weekend, he recognized
he and the church were in
uncharted territory.
Instead of preparing to
greet in person the 100 or
so parishioners that regularly
attend the 9:30 a.m.
Mass, Billote was preparing
to greet them in a
somewhat unconventional
manner: online.
Because of restrictions
on gatherings implemented
by the State of Illinois
and recommendations by
the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention,
churches across Mokena
are turning to technology
to reach their followers.
“And, so, we had wanted
to do something for
our people to keep them
spiritually connected to
our parish,” Billote said.
“And while the Mass itself
is beautiful and should be
experienced live to receive
communion, we decided
since they can’t have that
people should make something
called ‘a spiritual
communion,’ which is a
certain prayer that they
would say and receive the
eucharist that way spiritually.”
That led Billote and the
Rev. Dindo Billote, of St. Mary Catholic Church in
Mokena, prepares for a livestream of Mass Sunday,
March 22. Churches are turning to technology in order
to reach followers who are no longer to gather in large
groups. T.J. Kremer III/22nd Century Media
church to get innovative
and livestream the Mass
on social media.
“The technology that we
have — and have never
had in the church 10, 20
years ago — [we decided]
to actually use that and
have livestream of the actual
Mass, which will be
taking place in our parish
church being filmed,” Billote
said.
St. Mary Catholic
Church is among several
Mokena churches — including
Grace Fellowship
Church of Mokena, Immanuel
Lutheran Church
Mokena and Mokena United
Methodist Church — to
continue to try and reach
followers virtually.
With the nature of
church communities being
close-knit ones, shutting
the doors to the public
is a trying experience,
Billote said; however, he
added that being an online
presence for the faithful is
something to help lift people’s
spirits up.
“We just can’t wait for
the day when all this is
over and everyone again
is united with our community
because, basically,
we’re a community and we
want to be together again,”
Billote said. “We want to
be together, for sure. So,
this is kind of whetting our
appetite for that day.”
For more information on
online services, visit the
churches’ Facebook pages:
@stmarychurchmokena,
@mokenaumc and @
GraceFellowshipMokena.
Matt’s Old Mokena
Drawing comparisons between 1918, 2020 pandemics
Matt galik
Contributing Columnist
Much like the
spring of 2020,
the Mokena
of fall 1918 was a place
of worry. World War I
was reaching its bloody
end, and many village
families had loved ones in
the French combat zone.
Although the war was
winding down, American
casualties were still a daily
occurrence. A little over
a century ago, another
enemy reared its ugly head,
and this one too at home.
The new foe, the Spanish
flu pandemic, proved
itself to be just as deadly
as anything lurking in the
trenches of the Western
Front.
While the outbreak of
the illness is usually dated
as having begun in early
1918 and carried on until
the end of 1920, October
1918 bore the worst of it
in the United States. One
chronicler called the Spanish
flu the “greatest medical
holocaust in modern
history”, while the London
Times wrote “never since
the Black Death has such
a plague swept over the
world.” Anywhere between
50-100 million people
across the globe were lost
to the pandemic. Normal
strains of influenza are
most dangerous to the
children and the elderly,
while the variant from a
century ago was claiming
relatively young people in
robust health.
By Oct. 2, 1918, the first
recorded case in smalltown
Mokena cropped up
when 16-year-old Hugo
Niethammer fell ill. The
son of a Front Street hardware
merchant, the trouble
was compounded when
pneumonia also set in. But,
luckily, the lad was able to
pull through. Meanwhile,
just outside town, another
drama was unfolding. At
the time, the Rock Island
railroad housed 52 itinerant
Mexican workers in several
converted box cars on a
sidetrack about a quarter of
a mile east of Mokena. It
was here that the Spanish
flu’s deadly tentacles
would wreak the most
havoc.
Over the course of
the second weekend in
October, the entire camp
was walloped with the
pandemic, entire families
coming down with it at
once. Mokena farmer
George Maue, who also
served as the supervisor
of Frankfort Township,
knew what was happening
and immediately went into
crisis mode, sending an
urgent call for doctors, of
which three Rock Island
physicians showed up that
Sunday. On Monday, Oct.
14, the railroad sent out
mattresses and blankets for
the ill, which was a step up
from the austere conditions
of the bare box cars they
were living in, the inhabitants
oftentimes sleeping
on the floors. Before long,
new cars were sent down
the line, while the old ones
were fumigated.
It was all to no avail. By
the end of that week, six
of the workers were dead,
including a young, freshly
married couple. The harvest
of human life also left
a baby motherless. Saddest
of all, time has not preserved
any of the victims’
names, whose immediate
burial was provided for in
St. Mary’s Cemetery.
As October carried on,
hardly a family in the village
escaped the flu, the list
of infected reading like a
who’s-who of Mokenians
in the era. The Wolf Road
home of Carl and Mable
Krapp was invaded by the
virus, while at around the
same time Clinton and
Dorothy Kraus, children
of the town barber, also
were knocked down with
it. Also included among the
sufferers were blacksmith
Albert Braun, postmaster
Ona McGovney and cattle
man John Cappel. Eighteen
people were displaying
flu-like symptoms on Oct.
14, and that the number
had dramatically climbed
to 25 two days later demonstrates
the rapidity with
which the Spanish Flu was
making short work out of
Mokena.
To protect village residents,
warning signs were
placed around town, and
the homes of the infected
Please see matt galik, 16