Year: 2015

On
Abbot Marcel Rooney

Adaptation and renewal of Religious Life: Role of ‘active,’ apostolic Religious

Reflections on Religious Life column by Abbot Marcel Rooney

Editor’s note: During this Year of Consecrated Life, this is the seventh in a series based on the Second Vatican Council’s document, Perfectae Caritatis (Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life) written by Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, former abbot primate of the Benedictine order who now resides in Madison.

In this commentary on the decree of the Second Vatican Council Decree On the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life, we have reflected upon the meaning of Religious Life expressed by the council fathers.

The fathers gave special attention to the two main expressions of Religious Life in the Western Church: 1) the contemplative and/or monastic life; 2) the active and/or missionary life.

In the previous installment, we reflected upon the contemplative expression of Religious Life. This seventh reflection will consider the council’s teaching on the “active” or apostolic expression of the special call to Religious Life.

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

Ladies of Divine Mercy second year to kickoff

PINE BLUFF — The second year of the Ladies of Divine Mercy will kick off on Friday, Sept. 18, with speaker Fr. Christopher Gernetzke, newly ordained priest of the diocese.

Ladies of Divine Mercy, modeled after the popular Knights of Divine Mercy, is a prayer apostolate which meets the third Friday of each month, September through April, at St. Mary of Pine Bluff Church, 3673 Co. Hwy. P, Cross Plains. The events are open to all women. Nursing mothers are welcome to bring their nurslings. The January and April events will be combined events with the Knights of Divine Mercy.

Read More
On
Morgan Smith

Encountering Christ and radiating Him to others

Morgan Smith

As I go through each day, ­­often monotony sets in, and I try to remember my conversion. I try to keep the memory of what happened to me­ — ­the event of meeting Christ and falling in love with Him­­ — alive to let it permeate my being through the drudgery of everyday things.

This is so difficult for me! Why is it so easy to forget what has happened to us? Why do we allow the distractions of life to take hold of our hearts and minds until we forget the reason for life itself?

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

Pregnancy Helpline sponsors Diaper Dash run/walk

MADISON — Pregnancy Helpline, Inc.’s Diaper Dash run/walk will kick off Diaper Need Awareness Week, September 28 through October 4.

This week in Wisconsin has been proclaimed for the second year through the effort of Pregnancy Helpline of Madison to draw attention to the struggle low-income families face to keep their children in clean diapers. Sizes four, five, and six are especially needed.

Diaper Dash

The first Diaper Dash 5K run/two mile walk will be held on Saturday, Sept. 26, at McKee Farms Park, 2930 Chapel Valley Rd, Fitchburg. Check in begins at 8 a.m. with the race at 9 a.m.

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

Alice Heinzen to speak at annual priests’ assembly

WISCONSIN DELLS — Alice Heinzen, who along with her husband Jeff was a delegate to the Synod on the Family in Rome, will speak to priests of the Diocese of Madison when they gather for their annual Presbyteral Assembly from Sunday evening, Sept. 20, to Wednesday, Sept. 23, at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells.

The assembly is an opportunity for prayer and fellowship among priests of the diocese, as well as time for education and reflection.

Read More
On
Tony Magliano

Millions of refugees have no place to call home

The heartbreaking photo of the little Syrian refugee boy washed up dead on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey (see the picture at bit.ly/1PZHvDV) strikingly illustrates the tragic plight of desperate refugees — mostly Syrian — fleeing for their lives from the Islamic State and other violent groups in the Middle East and Africa.

The three-year-old boy, named Aylan, along with his five-year-old brother, Galip, and their mother, Rehan, drowned after the raft carrying them capsized near the Turkish coast.

Read More
On
Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Putting a human face on the refugee crisis

Editor's View by Mary C. Uhler

One of the saddest pictures I’ve seen recently is that of a three-year-old Syrian boy lying on a Turkish beach. He looks like he’s sleeping with his head turned to one side. But he isn’t asleep; he’s dead.

Catholic News Service, to which the Catholic Herald subscribes, ran the picture of the little boy. However, I decided not to use that picture with this article (I felt it was too disturbing). Instead, I have included another sad picture: one of the boy’s father weeping. Abdullah Kurdi, father of three-year old Aylan Kurdi, is shown crying as he leaves a morgue in Turkey September 3.

The family of Aylan, the Syrian toddler whose body washed up on a Turkish beach, had been trying to emigrate to Canada after fleeing the war-torn town of Kobani.

Read More
On
Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

What God has joined together, no man must separate

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,

Marriage matters. Marriage matters on all levels. Marriage matters to the men and women joined together in it, to children, to families, to communities, to our nation, and to the Church. Marriage is foundational to the stability of humankind, to the health and welfare of nations, and to our future.

All of that can be stated without recourse to theology, Sacred Scripture, or to 2,000 years of Church teaching. The fact that marriage matters has been known by human beings since before Jesus Christ was born.

It’s been known since the very beginning, because it is inscribed on the hearts of rational man and woman. Not only can the natural reproductive function of human anatomy be clearly seen, but the natural benefits of a stable, fundamental unit of society, made up of father, mother, and child, can be immediately realized.

God’s plan for marriage

Beyond that, however, we as Christians believe that, in His love for humanity, God has revealed his plan for marriage time and time again. From the creation of Adam and Eve, through the giving of “the law” as recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, to the creation of a “new law,” in Jesus’ words to the Pharisees, to the elevation of Holy Matrimony to an inviolable Sacrament, God Himself has made clear in extraordinary ways that marriage matters.

Since the time that there was a Church (and before), marriage has been between one man and one woman, for one lifetime, with openness to children. It is for this reason (particularly in defense of the marriage bond) that St. John the Baptist, St. Thomas More, and so many others spoke truth to power at the expense of their own lives; it is for this reason (particularly in defense of the fruitfulness of marriage) that Blessed Pope Paul VI made clear, in the face of much dissent, that human procreation must not be stymied by artificial means of birth control; and it is for this reason in our own day (particularly in defense of the reality of marriage between one man and one woman), that the Church and her faithful have taken such abuse for saying (with love) that there is no such thing as “gay marriage.”

Read More