What is this world coming to? Violence is happening everywhere.
We used to think of civil unrest and wars occurring elsewhere — not in our own cities. But now it seems like no one is safe from violence.
Every time I hear about another shooting, I say a quick prayer and feel like crying, “Not again!”
Who is to blame? Is there anything we can do?
PALMYRA — St Mary Parish is hosting a “sip and swipe café” for older adults interested in learning how to use a tablet computer.
The program is designed to teach the basics of using a tablet, including how to connect to the Internet, use email and apps, and other functions.
MADISON — St. Dennis Catholic Church, 505 Dempsey Rd. will host a four week “No One Cries the Wrong Way” series on Wednesday evenings Oct. 5, 12, 19, and 26.
A group reunion will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 2. Sessions facilitated by the St. Dennis grief ministry team include team presentations, prayer, small group discussion, handouts, and refreshments.
MADISON — Pooling resources and working in unity, many pro-life organizations will sponsor the Madison premiere of the movie, Voiceless, on Thursday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. at Marcus Point Cinema, 7825 Big Sky Dr., Madison.
Kicking off October Respect Life Month, the public is invited to support the organizations and get a different view of what it means to be pro-life in the current culture.
MADISON — Tony Magliano, a writer whose column appears regularly in the Catholic Herald, will speak at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Madison on Thursday Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in the church gathering space.
The title of his talk is “Advancing the Kingdom of God in the 21st Century.” He will speak on the spectrum of life issues, including abortion, poverty/hunger, war, capital punishment, and environmental degradation.
MADISON — The Madison Catholic Woman’s Club (MCWC) warmly invites all women of the Diocese of Madison and their guests to experience a Day or Evening of Christian Renewal on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at St. Maria Goretti Church Parish Hall, 5313 Flad Ave., Madison. Both day and evening events will be inspirational, challenging, and enlivening.
Peggy Weber RN, MSN, MCWC spiritual chairperson, humorous storyteller, and an inspiration to all, will be the featured speaker. She brings to the Spiritual Day a background in not only hospital and parish nursing, but also counseling people struggling with mental illness, cancer, chronic illness, and grief and empowering them with hope.
MADISON — On June 4 of this year, volunteers with Pro Labore Dei (PLD)-Madison chapter served their 100,000th meal to homeless people in downtown Madison. As of September 17, the number of meals served passed 103,000, according to Jim Flad, local PLD coordinator.
“In this Year of Mercy, we are grateful and thankful to God for choosing us to be His hands and legs here in Madison,” said Flad.
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Second in a two-part series on a Pew Study about why young people are leaving the active practice of Christianity. Part one looked at, first, the relationship between religion and science and, second, the dismissive “psychologizing” of beliefs. In this second part, Bishop Barron examines two more reasons young people offered in the study for “walking away from Christianity.” His analysis of the source of the problem, included in part one, is reprinted here in the first two paragraphs.
For the past 50 years or so, Christian thinkers have largely abandoned the art of apologetics and have failed (here I offer a j’accuse to many in the Catholic universities) to resource the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition in order to hold off critics of the faith. I don’t blame the avatars of secularism for actively attempting to debunk Christianity; that’s their job, after all.
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MADISON — This election year, Catholics may find it difficult to choose candidates and be tempted not to vote.
However, failure to vote would not be in keeping with Catholic teaching, which emphasizes that faithful citizens should be involved in the political process.
That’s what Barbara Sella told those gathered recently at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Madison for her presentation, “Be Catholic First: Tools for Discerning as We Approach Election 2016.”
Sella is associate director for respect life and social concerns for the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC), the public policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops.
Faithful citizens “cannot and must not remain on the sidelines,” she said in quoting Pope Francis. “We have an actual role to play in the politics of our nation.”
Sella said, “The Church emphasizes that our choices have to be grounded in moral principles, and we have to use our prudential judgment based on the values of our faith.
“Forming our conscience is the first step. But we have to form it in line with the teachings of the Church.”
The role of the Church itself is as a “teaching institution.” The bishops and priests teach the laity. “We are the doers,” Sella emphasized.
“The bishops and priests rely on the expertise of lay people.”
This year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is emphasizing four key principles in its materials on Faithful Citizenship (see www.faithfulcitizenship.org):
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Allow me to share with you one of the high points of my life — a short, yet deeply enriching encounter with a saint.
Nearly 30 years ago, I worked at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington’s emergency food warehouse. Missionaries of Charity Sisters caring for HIV/AIDS patients at their Gift of Peace House in Washington, D.C., used to regularly stop by for food assistance.
Since I helped with food distribution, I got to know the Sisters. One day while picking up food, one of the Sisters said to me, “Mother is coming.”
