You can`t teach faith. But you can learn a lot about it at St. Mary Immaculate Church school in Plainfield.
The tornado that devastated Plainfield on Aug. 28, 1990, the day before the new school term was to start, tore apart the Roman Catholic church and its school.
The body of the school`s principal, Gloria Sanchez, was found under collapsed walls and broken glass. She was one of the 29 who were killed by the storm. Others in the school suffered serious injuries.
There still is no St. Mary church or school building in Plainfield, although the presence of both is felt very deeply in the community.
As for the church, Saturday mass is held at a Joliet pastoral center, Sunday`s services are held in the gym at the local junior high school, and a small chapel on the outskirts of town is home to parishioners during the week. The school is an even more inspiring story.
Classes for St. Mary`s 256 pupils now are conducted out of five relatively cramped double mobile units in the parking lot at Indian Trail Junior High School. Amenities are few.
The boys and the girls basketball teams play at another Joliet parochial school. The football team plays anywhere it can.
Market Day, the monthly fundraising activity, is held in the Congregational church, and school assemblies convene at the Lutheran church.
But, says school board member Sandy Book, St. Mary is ”more than brick and mortar.”
Third-grade teacher Mary Latta, who also serves as Plainfield`s mayor, recalled entering her classroom with 34 pupils for the first time after the devastation and feeling very uncertain of herself.
”I looked at those kids` eyes and I thought, `How are we going to heal them,”` said Latta, who still bears scars on her own legs.
Lesson one on the road to recovery was paying close attention to one another, said St. Mary`s new principal, Esther Prexl. ”You listened. You talked about the tornado when they wanted to talk about it, whether or not it fit into the lesson. You try to allay normal fears.”
For more than a year after the tornado, the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided teams of psychologists and counselors to help survivors deal with their stress. At St. Mary, there was more.
”It was the faculty and the administration and our two priests who held this school together,” said Vicky Mischia, a secretary at the school.
”Without them, we never could have done it.”
”First I had to make sure I didn`t fall apart,” said Rev. Charles Van Duran, pastor of St. Mary. ”I don`t know why it didn`t fall apart, but it didn`t . . . . Yes, God was there, now I recognize it. And there is hope for the future.”
In light of numerous Catholic school closings, it may have been far simpler to rebuild the church without rebuilding the school. But Duran said his parishioners wouldn`t allow it.
Donations continue to come in from across the country to help pay for necessities not covered by the school`s insurance policy. Construction of a new 14-room school, complete with computer room and kitchen facilities, is a priority.
The new school is scheduled to open in August.
But that`s not as important as some originally thought. ”The buildings are simply a means whereby we serve the community,” Van Duran said.
”They (the parishioners) believe in St. Mary Immaculate as a community.”
