KIELER — A Kairos TEC (Together Encountering Christ) retreat will be coming to Immaculate Conception Parish in Kieler December 28 to 30.
Open to all from juniors in high school and older, TEC is an intergenerational movement of the Catholic Church designed to help meet the spiritual needs of Catholic Christians.
Each TEC retreat proclaims the Paschal Mystery: the death, resurrection, and mission of Christ. Participants not only hear about the Paschal Mystery, but they also experience it.
RACINE — Sr. […]
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| Msgr. Larry Bakke, right, continues as director of the newly named Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities. The Apostolate’s new associate director is Deacon Jim Hoegemeier, left, and the new administrative assistant is Kellie Raddell. (Catholic Herald photo/Pam Payne) |
MADISON — The newly named Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities in the Diocese of Madison builds on the vision of its first director while expanding its outreach to include more fully persons with disabilities in the life of the Church in the diocese.
Msgr. Larry Bakke, the current director, announced the new name and two new staff members on the weekly television Mass broadcast on Sunday, Nov. 12, on WISC-TV.
He noted that the former Apostolate to the Handicapped and the TV Mass began in 1967 under the direction of the late Msgr. Thomas Campion, who died six years ago in November of 2010.
“We remember him with great love,” said Monsignor Bakke, saying Monsignor Campion emphasized that “all of you matter; we are all God’s children.”
Monsignor Bakke was appointed director of the Apostolate in 2011, while also serving as pastor of St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Monroe and Brodhead, a parish with a school and large staff.
While Monsignor Bakke will remain in Monroe, the office of the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities has been moved to the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center at Holy Name Heights in Madison. A full-time associate director and administrative assistant have been hired to work in the Madison office.
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On July 4, 1939, the New York Yankees sponsored a memorable Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. Though he was dying at age 36, Gehrig told the surprised crowd, “I’m the luckiest guy on the face of the earth.”
Gehrig was thankful because he had a Hall of Fame baseball career, a wonderful wife, family, friends, fans, teammates, and much more. He and Babe Ruth were teammates on one of the greatest teams in baseball history.
On Thanksgiving Day we gather with family and friends to share a meal and thank God for our cornucopia of blessings as Lou Gehrig did.
MIDDLETON — For the past 70 years, Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Madison has put faith in action through its many programs.
At the annual Catholic Charities Faith in Action Celebration held on November 9, President/CEO Jackson Fonder emphasized that it is people who make those programs possible, including staff, clients, and volunteers.
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| Veronica Arntz |
What about Amoris Laetitia? Up until this point in my article series, I have said very little about the new post-synodal apostolic exhortation.
Although the document begins with Psalm 128, which beautifully describes building a family like building a strong house, many have been confused and concerned about the document’s overall approach to the issue of Communion for the divorced and remarried.
It is good that Pope Francis reaffirms the importance of the indissoluble bond: “The indissolubility of marriage — ‘what God has joined together, let no man put asunder’– should not be viewed as a ‘yoke’ imposed on humanity, but as a ‘gift’ granted to those who are joined in marriage” (AL, art. 62).
MADISON — Sunday, Nov. 13, dawned warm and clear — a perfect day to welcome over 130 pilgrims who came to celebrate the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy at the Schoenstatt Heights Retreat Center.
The retreat center is located on Madison’s east side overlooking the State Capitol. As the time approached for Mass in the Family Room, pilgrims were streaming in to take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
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I’m in the process of re-reading a spiritual classic from the Russian Orthodox tradition: The Way of a Pilgrim. This little text, whose author is unknown to us, concerns a man from mid-19th century Russia who found himself deeply puzzled by St. Paul’s comment in first Thessalonians that we should “pray unceasingly.”
How, he wondered, amidst all of the demands of life, is this even possible? How could the Apostle command something so patently absurd?
MADISON — The 2016 Challenger varsity football team, comprised of student athletes from St. Ambrose Academy and Abundant Life Christian School (ALCS) in Madison, capped off their undefeated season by winning the WIAA 8-Man Football Jamboree Showcase game on October 29 effectively making them 8-man state champions.
The Challengers, representing the Great Eight South Conference, took on the Panthers from Prairie Farm High School of the Lakeland Conference at D.C. Everest Stiehm Stadium in Schofield.
MADISON — On an August afternoon this past summer, I had the opportunity to talk with “Jack,” a military veteran who had once been homeless but has been off the streets for a number of years.
Jack had been raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm with 11 siblings and served in the Korean War. As we talked, I learned how the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital program for helping homeless vets recover helped Jack take charge of his life.
We met at Jack’s apartment with Matt Heldman, VA peer specialist at the William S. Middleton VA Memorial Hospital in Madison, himself a homeless vet who experienced a successful recovery.
