MADISON — “It’s the best thing ever.”
“I love it. I can’t get enough.”
Those are just a couple of the verbally-expressed emotions from 27-year-old Tina Saviano from Madison as she is just a few weeks away from becoming a member of the Catholic Church.
Wisconsin’s laws make for some pretty dull reading. Most laws consist of technical prose defining eligibility for programs and drawing lines between legal and illegal conduct.
But some laws serve a different purpose. Some declare a policy vision for our state or define the scope and mission of what our government should do.
It is in these sections of the statutes that prose becomes poetry. It is there that we Wisconsinites define who we are and what we want our state to be.
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| Patrick Gorman |
Lent is a season of preparation and recollection of our Baptism. This is the fourth in a series of several articles reflecting upon the Sacrament of Baptism.
Imagine yourself in darkness with only a few candles providing light. You are standing in a secret location in the middle of the night, shivering from the cold and damp.
You have been “apprenticing” as a Christian for some time and at last you are about to join this small sect. You have no idea what will happen next and you don’t understand some of the things that already have been done.
Suddenly, your companion (godparent) turns you around, you are told to reach out and imagine standing face-to-face with the devil. Finally a booming voice from out of the darkness asks, “Do you renounce Satan?”
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Recently, the attention of the world was riveted to a deserted beach in northern Libya, where a group of 21 Coptic Christians were brutally beheaded by masked operatives of the ISIS movement.
In the wake of the executions, ISIS released a gruesome video entitled A Message in Blood to the Nation of the Cross. I suppose that for the ISIS murderers, the reference to “the Nation of the Cross” had little sense beyond a generic designation for Christianity.
Sadly for most Christians, too, the cross has become little more than a harmless symbol. I would like to take the awful event on that Libyan beach, as well as the ISIS message, as an occasion to reflect on the still startling distinctiveness of the cross.
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| Ask IPS |
Question: “During Lent, I feel like there is a large emphasis on sinfulness. I find myself feeling constantly ashamed of my past sins. Is this healthy?”
Response:William McKenna, M.S., Clinical Extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services
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| Frs. Eric Nielsen and Mark Miller distribute ashes at St. Paul University Catholic Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Ash Wednesday is the busiest day of the year at St. Paul’s with over 1,900 students attending Mass. (Contributed photo) |
MADISON — The marquee on Library Mall read, “Get your ash to Mass.” And get to Mass they did.
When Ash Wednesday comes around at St. Paul University Catholic Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, it’s all hands on deck.
Our liturgical rotation on Ash Wednesday included three priests, five sacristans, eight altar servers, 10 lectors, dozens of choir members, and 17 ashes-distributors for our five Masses.
We needed all the hands we could get. With students typically going back home for Christmas and Easter, Ash Wednesday is by far the busiest day of the year in the St. Paul’s chapel.
This year, over 1,900 students came through our doors to be told that they are dust and to dust they shall return. That number is about double the attendance of a typical Sunday.
We’re still not sure what makes this day more popular than any Sunday or holy days of obligation.
Apparently, being repeatedly asked the question, “Excuse me, did you know you have dirt on your face?” at every class throughout the day is no deterrent to these students.
More likely, it’s an incentive. The fact that so many hundreds of students on campus would sooner claim Catholicism as an identity than to practice it by, for example, fulfilling the Sunday obligation is an indication that the Catholic brand is alive and well here.
This has major implications for the New Evangelization. It means that more people of the Millennial generation than we might think are willing to give the Catholic faith a chance, but have never discovered a reason to become fully alive in that faith and to actively seek a nearer approach to God.
MIDDLETON — On February 11, 1939, the start of World War II was more than six months away, the movie Stagecoach — John Wayne’s breakthrough role — was days away from premiering in New York and Los Angeles, and the Catholic Church mourned the death of Pope Pius XI, who died the day before.
The world, in many ways, has changed since then. One thing that has stayed in the same in the past 76 years is the love between Veronica and Donald Harrop.
By way of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, has asked every bishop of the United States to submit a report responding to the Lineamenta and its questions for the purpose of contributing to the “Working Document” of the Ordinary Synod, to be held October 4 to 25.
Bishops are specifically encouraged to gather the thoughts and responses of a wide range of people in their dioceses in drafting their own reports.
To that end, we’d first like to make people in the diocese aware of the Lineamenta and the bishop’s invitation for them to read, reflect upon, pray about, and respond to the document in writing.
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| The Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center in Madison, formerly Holy Name Seminary, will be transformed into a multi-family housing community. (Catholic Herald file photo) |
MADISON — After consulting with diocesan boards, Bishop Robert C. Morlino has approved going forward with the proposed redevelopment project for the Bishop O’Connor Center (BOC).
Bishop Morlino met with the Diocesan Finance Council and College of Consultors (priests charged with advising the bishop) on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 20 and 21, respectively. The attendees of each body unanimously consented under canon law to authorize Bishop Morlino to make a decision on whether to proceed with the redevelopment project as proposed by Gorman & Company.
After these meetings concluded, Bishop Morlino approved proceeding with the project for the Bishop O’Connor Center as a mixed-use project, including 53 market-rate residential apartments and commercial space that includes religious use by the Diocese of Madison, Catholic Charities, Catholic Herald, Relevant Radio, and Catholic Mutual.
Msgr. James Bartylla, vicar general of the diocese, commented, “The redevelopment project for the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center allows the Diocese of Madison to reduce its occupancy costs as it remains at an historical site that maintains the legacy of Holy Name Seminary and preserves the Catholic identity of a beautiful campus on the west side of Madison that appeals to the community and the neighborhood.
“The project will offer its apartment residents a unique living environment in a historical building renewed with modern improvements and conveniences amidst a stunning park-like landscape with convenient access to the shops and amenities of the west side of Madison.”
WAUNAKEE — The Rite of Election of Catechumens and Call to Continuing Conversion for Candidates for Full Communion in the Catholic Church will be celebrated by the parishes of the Diocese of Madison on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 3 p.m. at St. John the Baptist Church in Waunakee.
