Monsignor Verbally Abuses Incarnation Kids At Mass: Parents

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL -- Parents at a south suburban Catholic elementary school that is slated to close permanently in June are enraged over remarks made by a monsignor to students during mass, which they claim were verbally abusive and bullying. According to parents and students, Rev. Monsignor R. George Sauraskas went on a tirade Thursday during the regular morning mass at Incarnation Church, calling kids “lousy Catholics” and saying he was glad the school was closing. The children were so distraught that a crisis intervention session was conducted later in the afternoon to calm the students down.

Incarnation School, 5757 W. 127th St., in Palos Heights is one of five Chicago-area Catholic schools being shuttered by the Archdiocese of Chicago at the end of the school year. During an emotional, bitter meeting with Archdiocese officials in January, parents argued that the building was in excellent shape. Another school also slated to close, Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge, expressed a willingness to merge their student body with Incarnation’s, which would have put the grammar school over the Archdiocese’s required 225-student enrollment benchmark. The Incarnation parents say their children will all have to start at new schools in the fall and already feel bad enough without being berated publicly by a church authority figure.

A parent said she walked in after the incident unfolded on Thursday. Several students and their teachers were coming out of the church visibly distraught by the monsignor’s purported outburst.

“He took bully pulpit to a whole new level,” the parent said, who did not want her name to be used. “It’s hard enough for these kids being in the last weeks of the school. It’s a safety net and to have our children attacked like that is inexcusable. We had no idea what was going on, the kids were panicked.”

The parish’s regular Thursday morning mass is required attendance for Incarnation’s sixth through eighth grades, considered the parish elementary school’s junior high. Sixth-grader Tori Nielsen said she and her classmates were kneeling quietly in the pews and that there was no student shenanigans as far as she could tell. During his homily, Sauraskas asked the eighth-graders to stand up and answer what it means to be Catholic “because they were the most knowledgeable.”

Sauraskas asked how many eighth graders went to Sunday mass, and a few of the kids raised their hands. Then he asked how many of the students’ parents attended Sunday mass. The monsignor reportedly blustered when only a few students raised their hands. Incarnation is not within walking distance for many of the students, who depend on their parents for rides to school and church.

“He called us lousy Catholics,” Tori said. “At first I thought it was a joke but when he started going on about it, I knew he wasn’t joking and this is actually serious. He said he was glad the school was closing because we don’t go to mass anyway and we were disappointing other parishioners who paid for our school.”

The rest of the mass continued normally, but several of the students in Tori’s class were crying, including herself. Some of the older parishioners in the church who supported Sauraskas’ views were also said to have started yelling at the kids. A teacher escorting her students out of mass ran back into the church in tears, stating the monsignor and other parishioners were yelling at her and the students. Sauraskas is also alleged to have pretended to play a violin and make crying motions, stating “here we go again.”

“I was really angry,” Tori said. “I don’t think I’m a lousy Catholic because I serve at mass and help the church.”

Erica Gray’s her fifth-grade daughter was one of the morning’s altar servers. Gray attended the afternoon crisis intervention, where students were brought into a room and asked to write down their feelings about the incident. Gray said Sauraskas was there and continued to berate the students until he was told to leave by Fr. Arenc Falana, the pastor of Incarnation Church.

“Here’s this idiot yelling at the kids,” Gray said. “I don’t go to mass but I’m at all the fundraisers and often I’m running them.”

Tori’s mother, Megan, said at first she thought her daughter and the other students were exaggerating until she got a robocall from Falana apologizing for the monsignor’s outburst.

“I pay tuition to have my children verbally abused by a ‘Man of God’ at mass? I got the robocall apology so it must have been pretty bad,” Nielsen said, whose daughter will be attending St. Alexander School in Palos Heights next fall. “I called the rectory and we are no longer parishioners at that place.”

Falana apologized to parents in the robocall, acknowledging that Monsignor Sauraskas addressed some issues “in an inappropriate way that hurt many of the children.”

“I want you to know that my staff and I take took this very seriously and addressed it with the teachers and students involved,” Falana said.

Brian Nielsen thought the monsignor’s rant went above older Catholics’ fond remembrances of strict but fair nuns and priests making students toe the line by taking a tough disciplinary stance.

“Calling kids lousy Catholics is one thing, but pretending to play the violin and making crying motions is another,” Brian Nielsen said. “[Sauraskas] is kind of rude in his sermons. He is a hard, old school Catholic, but people say that’s just the way he is.”

The parents would like to see Sauraskas, who lives in retirement at Incarnation’s rectory, censured by the Vicarate for his outburst.

“It is the Catholic church,” Niesen said. “I’m sure if anything happens they’ll just move him and no one will know why he’s at their church. As long it isn’t St. Al’s.”

Spokeswoman Anne Maselli issued a written statement on behalf of the Archdiocese of Chicago, saying they were aware of the complaints.

“The Archdiocese is looking into the matter further in coordination with Incarnation School and Parish.

“The Archdiocese of Chicago and Incarnation School and Parish are committed to treating all students, parishioners, teachers and staff in a manner consistent with our Catholic values.”

Rev. Arek Falana's robocall to Incarnation parents