Day: April 10, 2014

On
Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Madison Catholic Woman’s Club serves causes for 100 years

Madison Catholic Woman’s Club plans 100-year anniversary celebration

All women of the Diocese of Madison are invited to join the Madison Catholic Woman’s Club for its 100-year celebration to be held at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, 702 S. High Point Rd., Madison, on Tuesday, May 6.

A social at 9:30 a.m. will begin the day with coffee, pastries, and historical exhibits. A Rosary is scheduled at 10:40 a.m. with Mass at 11 a.m. followed by a luncheon.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino will preside at the Mass, which will be a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the patroness of the club. Concelebrants will include Fr. Roger Nilles, the club’s current spiritual director, and priests who served as previous spiritual directors. Lori Lonergan will be the cantor at the Mass and Josephine Cowen will be the accompanist.

A program, “A Walk down Memory Lane,” will begin at 1:15 p.m. All past spiritual directors and past Christian Achievement Award recipients are especially welcome.

Paid reservations must be received by April 23. Cost is $22 per person. Make checks payable to MCWC and send to Teri Kinney, 5117 Comanche Way, Madison 53704. For more information, call 608-246-8508.

Guests are welcome. The facility is barrier-free.

Thanks to Madison Catholic Woman’s Club members Ann Furhman and Syl Kimberly for historical information provided for this article, along with an archived article by Helen Matheson Rupp published in the Catholic Herald on the occasion of the club’s 75th anniversary in 1989.

MADISON — In 1914, three women met in Madison and conceived plans to form a Madison Catholic Woman’s Club (MCWC) with a great eagerness to do good work.

Mary Adams, Mrs. E. T. Adams, and Mary O’Connor encouraged 100 women to join them at a meeting held at St. Raphael School hall in downtown Madison. Eighty-five more women joined them as charter members of the new club. Dues were $1 a year.

First service project

In 1915, the club launched its first major project: service to what was then Madison’s neglected minority, the Italian immigrant community in the Regent-Brooks-W. Washington Ave. area, which was known as the “triangle.”

This “Italian Aid” project would continue for over 40 years, until the neighborhood was bulldozed in the path of urban renewal.

Celebrating 100 years

Today as the MCWC prepares to observe its 100th anniversary with a special celebration on Tuesday, May 6, it can rejoice in a notable record of charitable work undertaken, in addition to spiritual, educational, cultural, and community activities.

Barb Kutchmarek, chairman of the club’s anniversary celebration, commented, “I am so happy to be part of this 100-year anniversary celebration. Having served as co-president for two years and working with many of the wonderful members of MCWC, I felt we could make this a remarkable event and provide many memories for the members, both old and new.

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Cathy Lins, For the Catholic Herald

Forgiveness can change our lives, says expert

MONONA — “It’s basically goodness starting within myself and flowing out to others,” Dr. Robert D. Enright said as he explained forgiveness.

“When we have been treated unfairly by others and choose to forgive, we do two things: we get rid of something negative and then we try to offer the one who hurt us some kind of moral goodness, whether it’s respect, generosity, kindness, or even some kind of moral love.”

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On
Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Being ‘with the Lord’

This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

“With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption (Ps 130:7).” We were reminded in the Responsorial Psalm of this past Sunday. And these are precisely the thoughts to which we should turn our minds and hearts as we come upon Holy Week, Easter, and the celebration of His Divine Mercy.

I would like to take a look briefly at the three major ideas in the above verse, “With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.”

What does it mean to be ‘with the Lord’?

“With the Lord . . .” What does it mean to be with the Lord?

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Same-sex marriage: Why it should not be considered a ‘civil right’

Editor's View by Mary C. Uhler

In 2006, citizens in Wisconsin approved a “Marriage Protection Amendment” to the state Constitution by a “yes” vote of 59.4 percent of the voters.

Wisconsin voters upheld the definition of marriage as “one man and one woman.” The state’s Catholic bishops had encouraged citizens to protect this definition of marriage.  John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, commented in 2006, “In their votes . . . the people of Wisconsin reaffirmed their intention to preserve the one man, one woman institution of marriage in our state.”

Same-sex couples bring lawsuits

Now, over seven years later, there are four same-sex couples suing our governor and other public officials in an attempt to overturn Wisconsin’s amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

St. Dennis student to dance in world championships in London

MADISON — On Friday, April 11, 13-year-old Bridget Thompson and her family will be leaving for London as the seventh grader from St. Dennis School in Madison gets ready to take part in the World Championships of Irish Dance.

Bridget earned her spot in the championships at the 2013 Mid-America Oireachtas (pronounced “oh-rock-toose”) competition in Grand Rapids, Mich., this past December. She placed 15th out of more than 130 girls.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

St. Ambrose Academy offers three pro-life scholarships

MADISON — Three pro-life volunteers in need of financial assistance will be awarded partial scholarships to study at St. Ambrose Academy this fall, the school announced.

In his first encyclical, Evangelli Gaudium, Pope Francis observed that the “defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development.”

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