Day: March 17, 2011

On
Kat Wagner, Catholic Herald Staff

Rite of Election calls forward those seeking to ‘join the team’

Bishop Robert C. Morlino receives candidate Kimberly Kazort during the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion at St. John the Baptist Church in Waunakee on March 13.  (Catholic Herald photo/Kat Wagner) For more Rite of Election pictures click here.

WAUNAKEE — Bishop Robert C. Morlino has often likened being a member of the Catholic Church to being on a battleship headed towards heaven. Unlike a cruise ship, the journey will be rough and will get stuck on the rock of Calvary before it gets there — but it will get a better reception when it does arrive.

Like the crew on the battleship — or the players on a team, as the bishop said at the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion March 13 at St. John the Baptist Church in Waunakee — it is important for Catholics to be unified in the fight.

Joining the team

The Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion is an annual event traditionally held in the Diocese of Madison on the first Sunday of the Lenten season. It brings together the catechumens — those who are as yet unbaptized — and candidates — those baptized Christian and now seeking the Sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist in the Catholic Church — from parishes around the diocese. In ceremonies at their home parishes, they were sent forth to declare at the rite their intention of receiving the Sacraments of Initiation and full reception into the Church.

 

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On
John Huebscher

Common good must be focal point of budget debate

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

Now that the governor has presented his state budget to the Legislature, fiscal issues and spending priorities will dominate the legislative agenda for the next several months.

First, the Joint Committee on Finance will hold hearings on the proposals. Then some of the standing committees may hold “subject matter” hearings on aspects of the budget related to their areas of expertise.

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On
Mary C. Uhler

Victory for freedom of speech, religion: Supreme Court lets ruling stand on funding of Catholic student group

editor's view by Mary C. Uhler

As a graduate student in the 1970s, I attended Mass and was involved in activities at St. Paul University Catholic Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For many Catholic students like me, St. Paul’s was a “home away from home” in the spiritual sense. It kept students tethered to their faith amid the challenges of life on campus.

St. Paul’s is the oldest Newman Center established on a secular university in the United States. The first chapel was completed in 1909 on State St. in the heart of the UW campus. Over the years, St. Paul’s has continued to provide Catholic students — who number over 25 percent of the student body by some estimates — with the opportunity for growth in their faith in an increasingly secular culture.

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