Month: April 2014

On
Chris Lee

Sister Patricia Brockmeyer, OP, dies

SINSINAWA — Sister Patricia Brockmeyer, OP, died April 24, 2014, at Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis. Her religious name was Sister Mary Campion. The funeral Mass was held in Queen of the Rosary Chapel at Sinsinawa April 30, 2014, followed by burial of the cremains in the Motherhouse Cemetery.

Sister Patricia made her first religious profession as a Sinsinawa Dominican Aug. 5, 1951, and her final profession Aug. 5, 1954. She taught music and piano for 20 years, served as a medical secretary for 13 years and secretary for five years, and ministered in pastoral care for two years. Sister Patricia served in Wisconsin, New York, Illinois, and Minnesota.

 

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On
Fr. Robert Barron

What Easter means

In first century Judaism, there were many views concerning what happened to people after they died.

Following a very venerable tradition, some said that death was the end, that the dead simply returned to the dust of the earth from which they came.

Others maintained that the righteous dead would rise at the close of the age. Still others thought that the souls of the just went to live with God after the demise of their bodies. There were even some who believed in a kind of reincarnation.

Accounts of Jesus’ resurrection

What is particularly fascinating about the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection is that none of these familiar frameworks of understanding is invoked.

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On
Sr. Ruth Battaglia, CSA

The Pascal Mystery: Death evolving into life

Sr. Ruth Battaglia, CSA

After successful treatment for breast cancer 16 years ago, it returned with a vengeance — 15 small brain tumors and a lung tumor. This time it was stage four cancer.

The diagnosis stunned everyone. The news of Patty Kelbel’s condition spread quickly, especially among the Christian Experience Weekend (CEW) community. CEW is an intense retreat experience, directed mostly by laity, that has been a joint venture between the parishes of St. Ann in Stoughton and Holy Mother of Consolation (HMC) in Oregon for a number of years.

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On
Jean Mueller

Visiting agency services

Q I am the only family member involved in my mother’s care.

She lives in an apartment and has a service agency visiting daily to help her get up, prepare meals, and to be there for companionship.

Since my mother is not receiving much of a monthly income, I pay for this service. I have repeatedly asked this agency to keep me informed of their activities. It seems all they are interested in is sending me the monthly bill.

I hear about things second hand or well after the event has occurred. I am talking about missed visits as well as observations the staff has about my mother and her overall health and well being. Since I pay for her care, shouldn’t I be able to get all the details? (A concerned son in Columbus).

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Why Jesus is God: Debunking skeptics

It’s Easter time, and that means that the mainstream media and publishing houses can be counted upon to issue debunking attacks on orthodox Christianity.

The best-publicized of these is Bart Ehrman’s book, How Jesus Became God. Once a devout Bible-believing evangelical Christian, trained at Wheaton College, the alma mater of Billy Graham, Ehrman “saw the light” and became an agnostic scholar and is on a mission to undermine the fundamental assumptions of Christianity.

Jesus just an ‘itinerant preacher’

In this most recent tome, Ehrman lays out what is actually a very old thesis, going back at least to the 18th century and repeated ad nauseam in skeptical circles ever since, namely, that Jesus was a simple itinerant preacher who never claimed to be divine and whose “resurrection” was in fact an invention of his disciples who experienced hallucinations of their master after his death.

Ehrman, like so many of his skeptical colleagues across the centuries, presents this thesis as though he has made a brilliant discovery. But basically, it’s the same old story.

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On
Vince Metcalf

Pray that rights to life, liberty, and happiness will survive

To the editor:

We, the people of the United States of America, who profess to be Christians, are facing one of the greatest threats to our religious liberty since our forefathers included these God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence more than 200 years ago.

In a case now being heard before our U. S. Supreme Court, the constitutionality of the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate will be decided. This mandate demands that all hospitals and clinics providing health care must also do abortions on demand to all requests and that all drug-dispensing facilities must distribute contraceptive supplies.

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