Author: Chris Lee

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Chris Lee

Church is being persecuted more than ever

The Catholic Difference column by George Weigel

Each issue of the admirable ecumenical journal, Touchstone, includes a department called “The Suffering Church.” It’s a title that Catholics of a certain age associate with purgatory; in Touchstone’s vocabulary, however, “the Church suffering” is the Church being purified here and now by persecution. It’s a useful reminder of a hard fact.

For that hard fact too rarely impinges on the Christian self-awareness, much less the Christian conscience, of the Church Comfortable, the Church Lax, or the Church of Nice — even though the historical commission created by John Paul II in preparation for the Great Jubilee of 2000 made clear that Christians today live in the greatest tribulation-time in Christian history.

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Chris Lee

Thanks to all those who have helped at Camp Gray

To the editor:

Reading the articles on Camp Gray’s history brought memories of the time when Msgr. Francis Gray, the founder of the camp, met out at the Baraboo fairgrounds with the men as they dismantled the crates used to build cabins. (The first cabins for Camp Gray were built using surplus ammunition crates from the Badger Ordnance Works. The cabins were constructed near the county fairgrounds, then moved to the camp.)

One of those men was Stewart Schirmer, my husband. Monsignor Gray supported the men with his presence, plus prayers, blessings, and a few “cool ones” on occasion.

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Chris Lee

Earth is dangerously warming — and we’re causing it

Making a Difference column logo

I usually write a column on global warming during the height of summer heat — it’s harder for people to deny global warming when they’re sweating.

But the highly authoritative United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recent report, “Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis” (http://www.ipcc.ch), has important warnings for us to seriously consider now.

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Chris Lee

The Sacrament of Holy Orders, part two

By Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

year of faith column logo

This is the second installment in a two-part series on the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

The ordination of priests

From the outset, the Rite of Ordination of a Priest places this sacrament in the context of Jesus, our great High Priest, choosing “certain disciples to carry out publically in His Name, and on behalf of mankind, a priestly office in the Church.”

As such, priests are called to be co-workers with the order of bishops.

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Chris Lee

Personhood campaign seeks to extend protection to preborn children

To the editor:

Personhood is the fundamental civil rights issue of our time. The pro-life movement is founded on the bedrock principle that all human beings, at all stages of development, deserve full protection under the law.

Our nation’s history of civil rights progress has been fueled by this principle. But one injustice remains: the legal discrimination against pre-born babies, who can be freely mutilated and killed throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

The Wisconsin Personhood campaign seeks to pass an amendment to the state constitution legally recognizing that all preborn human beings are “persons” whose unalienable right to life is protected by the state.

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Chris Lee

Muy feliz por haber conocido al Papa Francisco

Esta columna es la comunicación del Obispo con los fieles de la Diócesis de Madison. Cualquier circulación más amplia va más allá de la intención del Obispo.

Queridos amigos:

Han pasado siete meses, pero sin duda ¡ha valido la espera! Estoy muy feliz porque hace unos días tuve mi primer encuentro con nuestro Santo Padre, el Papa Francisco. Espero tener algunas fotos para compartir la próxima semana.

En simple, no conocía al Cardenal Bergoglio y, desde que fue elegido Obispo de Roma, he tenido muchas ganas de compartir algunos momentos con el hombre a quien mi misión está tan estrechamente conectada.

He hablado de esto muchas veces antes, pero recuerdo nuevamente que es uno de los deberes principales del obispo diocesano salir y ser una especie de pegamento que lleva a la gente rápidamente al corazón de la Iglesia y ser un signo de unidad en medio del Cuerpo de Cristo en su diócesis. Es uno de los deberes principales del Papa ser ese pegamento y ese signo de unidad entre los obispos del mundo y la gente unida a ellos.

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Chris Lee

Thanks Monroe community for supporting program on dangers of drinking, driving

To the editor,

On September 25, Monroe Clinic and Hospital Foundation presented the “Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth” (P.A.R.T.Y.) Program to 11 different high schools in the area. The 75-minute presentation at the Monroe High School Performing Arts Center (PAC) featured a dramatization depicting the tragic results that can occur from drinking and driving.

This year, more than 600 students from Illinois and Wisconsin high schools were in attendance from Albany, Argyle, Belleville, Blackhawk, Juda, Le-Win, Monroe, Monticello, New Glarus, Orangeville, Pecatonica, and Pearl City.

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