Much work to be tackled during the day today, so this will be brief:

A disagreement between Bishop Braxton and some of his priests goes very public:

Belleville Bishop Edward K. Braxton set off a flurry of e-mail messages among priests and diocesan insiders when he told a 20-year-old Catholic woman she had not studied enough to allow him to confer the sacrament of confirmation.

The ensuing controversy regarding the woman’s unsuccessful attempt on April 10 to be confirmed at St. Michael’s Church in Paderborn raised questions about Braxton’s ministerial style among some Catholics, criticism that was offset by a statement from the diocesan chancellor’s office citing community praise for the bishop’s interaction with parishioners.

The controversy also resulted in a statement from Braxton to St. Michael’s pastor, the Rev. James Voelker, and by inference to all diocesan pastors, that they need to ensure that those who seek confirmation, whether adults or young people, should first receive the necessary educational and spiritual preparation.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, confirmation is "a sacrament in which the Holy Ghost is given to those already baptized in order to make them strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Christ." It is usually conferred at ages 12-13 by a bishop.

Nicole Schilling, of New Athens, where she attends church at a different parish, and nine of her relatives heard the bishop’s decision moments before the ceremony and angrily left the event, said Voelker. Schilling, an employee of King’s House in Belleville, a religious retreat run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, did not bring a required baptismal certificate and was not known to the pastor of her home parish, Braxton said in a statement.

Schilling declined to comment.

Braxton told the woman she would need at least 10, one-hour education sessions and "some time for prayer and reflection," Voelker said.

"He has no capability of seeing anything other than his own views," Voelker said of Braxton.

While a diocesan spokesman said the bishop does not publicly discuss his private messages to priests, Braxton, in a written response to questions from the News-Democrat, stated, "The case in question involves a candidate who was presented to me moments before the celebration of the sacrament with no catechesis (religious instruction) of any kind, stating that she had been told, quite incorrectly, that as an adult she needed no preparation. … This is simply not true and contrary to everything the Church intends in the sacraments."

Voelker said he was confident of the woman’s sincerity. He said she had completed some earlier reading about Catholicism and he thought that was enough for confirmation.

"How many of us perform marriages when we know that people have very little understanding of the sacrament and all they really want is a nice setting? Do we stop doing them?" Voelker asked.

There’s more. This is definitely a situation, it seems in which there is probably more to the story on all sides.

Also in Belleville, a priest is finally defrocked.

More than 14 years after he was removed from active ministry following accusations that he sexually abused boys, Robert J. Vonnahmen, who once directed a Catholic youth camp, has been removed from the priesthood by Pope Benedict XVI.

Vonnahmen, 76, the former pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Elizabethtown, while never criminally charged, was prohibited in 1993 from performing priestly duties after the Diocese of Belleville conducted an investigation of him and other priests and a deacon in the diocese. Allegations of sexual abuse prompted the investigations, which resulted in 15 priests and the deacon being removed from active ministry.

Vonnahmen, who has denied allegations of sex abuse, was accused by victims of accosting them at Camp Ondessonk in Southern Illinois. He could not be reached for comment Monday.

He continues to be involved in a retreat center and tour company:

Vonnahmen formerly led Camp Ondessonk in Southern Illinois in the early 1980s, a popular Catholic children’s summer camp not directly associated with the diocese. He also operated Golden Frontier Tours through a nonprofit operation called Catholic Shrine Pilgrimage Inc., which also operates a 2,500-acre shrine and resort — San Damiano — near Golconda in Pope County.

While Vonnahmen has said he is retired from the tour and shrine business, Pope County assessor’s clerk Maureen Stafford said the laicized priest still resides in a tax-exempt $350,000 villa overlooking the Ohio River on the San Damiano retreat’s grounds. The nonprofit supplied the cash to build the home and is listed as its owner, Stafford said.