Nebraska
‘Breathtaking’: Through the Cornfields With Jesus in Nebraska Eucharistic Pilgrimage
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The procession began quietly, with just the sound of footsteps crunching on gravel. The air was thick with incense, heavy with east Nebraska’s summer humidity and dust from the road.
The silence was soon broken with the sound of bells and the voices of pilgrims and processors as they sang, “O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine,” and followed Christ in the Eucharist.
The procession — part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage taking place across the United States — traveled from Cloisters on the Platte, an Ignatian silent retreat center near Omaha, to the Shrine of the Holy Family, a wayside chapel beloved by locals and travelers alike.
The route followed a gravel road, visible from Interstate 80, which crossed through cornfields amid the distant hum of semitrucks and cars. Travelers on the Midwestern highway would find the spectacle an unusual sight — well over 500 Catholics quietly following a priest holding the Eucharist aloft under its canopy.
The pace was quick considering the summer heat and despite stops at the occasional water bottle stations set up along the road, and the nearly five-mile procession was arduous. A voice would frequently call out loudly for the crowd to move to one side to allow a car or truck to pass.
At the end of the procession, Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, known by his faithful flock as “our Star Wars archbishop,” joked that while he began thinking of the pilgrimage as payment for his sins, he didn’t realize “just how many there were.”
The procession was part of the Junipero Serra Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which began on the California coast more than a month ago. It is one of four national pilgrimages moving across the nation with the Eucharist, set to meet in Indianapolis in July for the National Eucharistic Congress.
It was also the meeting of two brother dioceses — parishioners from both Lincoln and Omaha gathered together for the pilgrimage. Bishop James Conley of Lincoln carried the monstrance, passing it on to Archbishop Lucas at the foot of the steep hill leading to the shrine in a ceremonial exchange marking the edge of his diocese.
“We expect heat this time of year,” Lucas told CNA after the procession. “I was just thrilled that so many people were willing to bear the heat and walk — it was over four miles.”
“It reminds us of the heroic efforts of the pilgrims that are helping us have these processions. They’re all across the country, starting from the West Coast,” he said. “I’m really grateful to them.”
One attendee, lifelong Catholic Timothy Swan, came to the pilgrimage after attending all-night adoration the night before at Risen Christ Cathedral in Lincoln. As it grew late and the initial crowd thinned, Swan recalled the cathedral becoming uncomfortably cold.
“Jesus is good,” he said. “It was great. The only thing is, I bet Jesus was cold … There were a couple of times I did go out to my car and turn on the heat. But it was a lot of fun.”
Swan has been joining parts of the Junipero Serra Route from his hometown in the northeast corner of Colorado to where he grew up in Omaha, attending events in Sterling and Fort Morgan, Colorado, as well as Lincoln and Omaha.
“People have said that this must have been similar to the time when Jesus [lived] when the people followed him in large crowds, and then the woman with the hemorrhage just wanted to touch him,” he said of the processions.
With heavy limbs and tired feet, the pilgrims made their way to the top of the hill to reach the end of the procession at the Shrine of the Holy Family, an unusual-looking building of cedar and glass that overlooks the surrounding fields and freeway, its latticed roof reaching into the clouds.
The chapel is a repose for travelers, who may find solace in prayer by stopping in the wayside chapel, as well as travelers in spirit.
Archbishop Lucas carried the monstrance along a narrow dirt path lined with wildflowers and tall grass, making a final loop around the hilltop shrine. He entered the pleasantly cool shrine followed by a small number of processors who were able to fit inside.
Built in 1993, the intricately designed hilltop chapel was the inspiration of four Catholics who each (independently) shared a dream to build a roadside chapel for travelers.
An eye-catching archway of interwoven trusses forms its structure, while within its glass walls, a unique water element meant to reference baptism is built into the flooring.
The entrance to the shrine is marked by a cracked path with a pebbled waterway just under the surface. Small pools of water mark each pew, while a larger pool sits beneath the altar.
The Holy Family’s image is etched in the largest window above the altar so subtly the image almost merges with the sky on a partly cloudy day like this one. As they reflect or pray, the glass walls offer visitors broad vistas of green fields stretching out in every direction.
All was quiet except for the sound of trickling water flowing underneath the holy place, along with the murmur of song heard as the bishop brought the monstrance forward, blessing the processors with a final Benediction.
To those outside the chapel, Christ was still visible, seen through the glass walls. With the sunlight reflecting on the golden monstrance, the pilgrims inside and outside the shrine knelt before Jesus for an hour of adoration.
One young woman inside the chapel bowed low before the altar, touching her face to the cool stone floor in reverence.
Just beyond the altar, the line of pilgrims and processors could be seen outside, waiting to enter into the small shrine.
One or two at a time, the processors left, taking a dirt path that led to a shuttle driven by a jovial driver, which took them back to their parking spots to make the ride home for the evening.
Jonah Tran, 22, is a young adult leader in his local chapter of the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Lincoln, Nebraska. He said the end of the procession was “breathtaking.”
“Being from Lincoln my whole life, I’ve been to this church many times before, but the only times I’ve gone have been just on my own personal trips, so just seeing it by myself,” he said.
“But now actually being here, seeing hundreds of people come here together and going into the church … It’s breathtaking, going in, seeing the church actually filled this time,” he said.
“It’s amazing to see, especially being in Nebraska,” Tran said of the procession. “Being able to see individuals like myself who are Vietnamese, having this all in common — but [that it’s] not only within the Vietnamese community, [we’re seeing] how diverse things can be, but yet we’re all here for the same belief.”
“The thing that I noticed is that the average age of the group today was young,” Lucas said after the procession. “And so, as a person who’s not so young anymore, that makes me feel really good and very hopeful for the future.”
“It just reminds me how many friends the Lord has here and how close he wants to be to all of us,” he said.
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Nebraska
Income tax cuts will be protected during Nebraska property tax relief discussions, governor says • Nebraska Examiner
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COLUMBUS, Nebraska — The funding route for Gov. Jim Pillen’s property tax reforms ideas will likely continue to focus on sales and “sin” taxes, and he says that “income tax won’t be touched.”
At various town halls around the state, Pillen has asserted that his solution to reducing property taxes lies in a broad sales tax base, which critics have said could raise taxes on poorer Nebraskans. Unlike in the spring, the governor has focused more recently on eliminating certain sales tax exemptions and increasing sin taxes. But he is no longer talking about raising the sales tax rate from 5.5 cents per dollar.
“We have to be competitive [with] income tax, and then we have to get competitive property tax,” Pillen told reporters Wednesday.
‘Keep that massive win’
Last year, lawmakers approved a long-sought reduction in the state’s income tax rates that will lower the top rates to 3.99% by 2027.
Pillen is now pushing ahead with his stated goal that by the end of 2024 — his second year as governor — the state will have eliminated or shifted a total of 40% of the state’s tax burden away from property taxes. That’s about $2 billion, with about half still to go to meet Pillen’s goal.
In an in-house podcast this week, Jim Vokal, CEO of the Omaha-based think tank Platte Institute, joined senior policy adviser Michael Lucci for the Platte Institute in calling to guard the income tax changes — which Lucci called “the best tax reform of any state in 2023.”
The Platte Institute duo said the state should follow through with that plan unless “some extreme event” comes up that can’t be foreseen.
“Keep that massive win,” Lucci said. “Lock that down and then let’s all work together going forward to figure out what to do on the property tax.”
Future local, state spending
The podcast came in conjunction with the Platte Institute releasing its own property tax reform report, which offers some recommendations that echo those of Pillen.
One calls for hard caps on local spending increases, which Vokal told the Nebraska Examiner will “stop the bleeding” associated with annual property valuation increases.
Valuations rose $32 billion in 2023, the largest single-year increase in state history, while nearly $300 million more in property taxes were collected across the state. In most cases, when valuations go up, more taxes are collected unless local tax rates go down.
Lucci said that elected officials should have to vote any time property tax rates could go up by $1 or more and that they should ask for a vote of the people for larger tax increases over a “hard cap,” such as an increase higher than the rate of inflation.
“That is the ultimate form of local control,” Lucci said on the podcast. “Soft cap for the first dollar raise, hard cap for dollars raised on whatever threshold folks think is reasonable.”
‘Full range of arrows in the quiver’
But Pillen’s desire to look only at sales taxes for his solution to an identified crisis could make his efforts more difficult, according to Rebecca Firestone, executive director of the OpenSky Policy Institute.
She said the reduced revenues resulting from the income tax cuts would be a “major complication” for a governor who wants to solve an identified crisis but not “look at the full range of arrows in the quiver of state tax policy.”
Firestone said the most recent estimates she’s seen from the phased down income tax rates will lead to about $1 billion in reduced state revenue in 2027.
If paused, it could mean about $600 million for Pillen to work with for his ideas, which include the state taking over K-12 school funding.
“They made a lot of spending commitments in 2023,” Firestone said of lawmakers, pointing to a new state prison, a $1 billion Education Future Fund and the Perkins County Canal. “If some of those spending commitments were put back on the table, it could potentially free up revenues.”
Firestone said “sin” taxes, such as those on cigarettes, vaping products and alcohol, have shown public health successes when taxes are increased. However, they aren’t the best for general sources of revenue that could be needed for Pillen’s ideas.
Questions around school funding
Many future ramifications need to be considered for Pillen’s “bold plan” for the state to take over the property tax portion of K-12 funding, Vokal said. Among those questions is how to balance the loss of local control and engagement for the state’s 244 school districts.
“I’m not saying that we can’t get there or we shouldn’t go that direction or necessarily support components of it, but you got to figure out how you’re going to allocate the funding [and] if there’s going to be spending oversight,” PIllen said.
Vokal and Lucci joined Pillen in calling for a more level sales tax system between goods and services, but Vokal cautioned that business or agricultural inputs should be off the table.
He said Pillen’s suggestion to remove exemptions on certain inputs and tax them at a lower rate per purchase, such as at 2 cents per dollar, still complicates the policy.
“If you’re going to fund education, broadening the base is fine, and it’s prudent, but you’ve got to have a consistent tax code,” Vokal said.
Firestone said school funding needs to include conversations about student achievement, too.
A different spending future
![](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2023RebeccaFirestoneWeb1-300x200.jpg)
Firestone added it’s hard to analyze Pillen’s newest ideas without any formal proposals or ideas, “although we are at the ready and tracking this very closely,” but she said the latest tax measure that did not pass in the spring has some clues.
“We’re not seeing any proposals for revenue raisers that are substantially different in their nature at this point,” Firestone said, adding it’s hard to determine who would ultimately benefit.
Pillen told reporters Wednesday that taxpayers likely wouldn’t see impacts of his ideas until the start of 2025, as many budgets for the next fiscal year are already in progress.
Still, Vokal said local political subdivisions need to plan ahead.
“They’ve got to understand that we are looking to a different future,” Vokal said. “And that future is reining in spending, and it sounds like, potentially, the state taking over education and controlling that spending.”
Nebraska
Nebraska Football Adds Transfer Cornerback from USC
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Matt Rhule may have picked up the boost his defense needs.
Ceyair Wright committed to Nebraska Football Friday. The 6-foot, 180-pound cornerback played at USC before entering the transfer portal, having left the team near the end of the 2023 season. Wright has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
As a redshirt freshman in 2022, Wright started 11 of the team’s 14 games at corner. He recorded 28 tackles, adding an interception and a pair of pass breakups.
Wright’s addition is a welcome one to the Blackshirts. Tommi Hill is expected to lock down one side but on the other, question marks remain. Transfer Blye Hill was injured during the Red-White Spring Game and will miss a portion of the season. Jeremiah Charles, coming off of a redshirt season, lacks extended experience, though he is one of the most athletic players on the team.
In 2021, Wright was rated as the No. 78 overall prospect in the country and No. 7 corner, from 247 Sports. Nebraska was among his finalists at the time, though he committed to USC before visiting Lincoln.
Away from the field, Wright appeared 2021 movie Space Jam: A New Legacy as one of the son’s of NBA star LeBron James.
Wright is the eighth transfer for NU this cycle. He joins Vincent Genatone (Montana), Micah Mazzccua (Florida), Stefon Thompson (Syracuse), Dante Dowdell (Oregon), Isaiah Neyor (Texas), Jahmal Banks (Wake Forest), and Blye Hill (Saint Francis).
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking All Huskers, following HuskerMax on X, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
Nebraska
Leadership Nebraska City seeks applicants for Class 20 – Nebraska City News-Press
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