Author: Chris Lee

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Chris Lee

A short life bookended by tragedy

Guest Column

The youth choir Christina Green belonged to performs just once a month, on the second Sunday at the 9 a.m. Mass. And sure enough, the day after the nine-year-old was killed in Tucson, Ariz., the youngest victim of the shooting targeting Representative Gabrielle Giffords, St. Odilia’s youth choir sang.

It was January 9, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and there was just one Baptism at that Mass, a nine-year-old girl.

That wasn’t lost on Fr. Richard Troutman, pastor of St. Odilia Parish in Tuscon, Ariz.

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Chris Lee

Bringing faith the the field

ALLOUEZ — If the Super Bowl is anything like the NFC championship game, Norbertine Fr. Jim Baraniak expects an overflow crowd.

The Green Bay Packers’ Catholic chaplain isn’t referring to the attendance at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on Sunday, Feb. 6, but rather the pre-game Mass. In Chicago, “everybody showed up. We maxed out the room,” said Father Baraniak.

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Chris Lee

Jesus came not to bring new laws, but to fulfill old laws

To the editor:

From the time I was in parochial school 50 years ago, I believed that Jesus replaced the old laws with new laws and gave us two new commands: to love God and one another. But I was wrong.

We frequently hear sermons at Mass that Jesus gave us new commandments, and in Tony Magliano’s article in the December Catholic Herald, regarding what Jesus would do if he were here today. Magliano wrote, “. . . consider John 13:34. Here, Jesus says: ‘I give you a new commandment: love one another.’” Magliano writes that Jesus’ commandment to love one another is new, and is vastly better than the old commandments which required an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

But a thorough understanding of John 13:34 reveals that when Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another,” he did not recite a new commandment, but quoted a 1,200 year old passage prescribed by Moses in Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

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Chris Lee

Bishops champion Catholic schools, urge continued support

MADISON — The bishops of Wisconsin have published a letter to Catholics affirming the vital role Catholic schools play in their communities and urging a renewed commitment to their success. The letter, entitled “Catholic Schools and Our Church: Faith Moving Forward” will be distributed throughout the state in conjunction with this year’s annual celebration of Catholic Schools Week, January 30 through February 5.

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Chris Lee

No cause is more important than affirming right to life

To the editor:

In 1983, on the 10th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton Supreme Court decisions legalizing abortion-on-demand in this country, President Ronald Reagan wrote an article for the magazine Human Life Review titled “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation.” I would like to share the last paragraph of this fine article on this the 38th anniversary of Roe and Bolton.

“Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide . . . there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.”

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Chris Lee

Contributing to a better world

Our Catholic Schools by Michael Lancaster

The theme of the 2011 Catholic Schools Week celebrates the significant contributions that Catholic schools have made and continue to make to our parishes, our communities, and our nation.

While Catholic schools have long been known for their rigorous academics, their emphasis on self-discipline and their delivery of an education based on Gospel values, their positive effects have been proven to be much more numerous and far reaching.

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