The more campaign seasons I experience the more grateful I become to the people who invented the “mute” button on my remote control.
It seems as more and more money is poured into election campaigns, the greater the number of negative advertisements that offer little to voters beyond appeals to their anger, fear, and resentment. And voters respond by tuning out and staying home.
November invites us to reflect upon last things.
It especially invited Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, to do so. On August 30, 1996, he learned that he would probably die of pancreatic cancer. He prayed that God would give him strength to complete his final book The Gift of Peace. God did. Cardinal Bernardin finished the book on All Saints Day, on November 1, 1996. He died 13 days later.
Our nation faces many challenges and our bishop has called for two days of prayer on Monday, Nov. 1, (All Saints Day) and Tuesday, Nov. 2, (All Souls Day).
Never before in our country’s life, which was built on the family, has the sanctity of the family, of life, and of marriage — one man and one woman — been so endangered.
“If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
To the editor:
It is necessary that we vote according to our properly formed consciences as Catholic Christians. We have to stand up for what we believe and cannot check our Catholic faith outside the voting booth.
The right to life of every human person from conception to natural death is the primary and thus the most essential of all human rights. We should remember that the poorest of the poor is the human person in the womb that is menaced with abortion.
To the editor:
The period of time during the 40 Days for Life, September 22 through October 31, is an ideal time for all Catholics to be reminded that human life begins at the moment of conception.
At the moment of conception God infuses a newly created immortal soul into the cell union. At that moment there is a body and soul. At the moment there is a new person, a human being.
To the editor:
It is shocking and scandalous. Tom Barrett, candidate for governor of Wisconsin, said at an October 15 town hall meeting in Milwaukee that embryonic stem cell research is “the Lord’s work.”
What a breathtaking new description of life-destroying research! We all know God as the Creator of life, and now Barrett has made Him a willing accomplice in research that depends on destroying a living human embryo.
To the editor:
Catholic Charities recently and correctly cited the horrendous poverty in American and that action needs be taken.
The Catholic Church must speak out against the American and international banks and credit card companies that are allowed to charge unreasonable interest. In the Church of the Middle Ages this was a heinous sin, called usury, that demanded punishment in hell and probably still does.
BELLEVILLE — On a glorious fall day, with corn ready to be harvested in a field behind the church and pumpkins and fall flowers in front of the altar, Bishop Robert C. Morlino described St. Francis of Assisi Church as a marvelous place of light as he prepared for the Mass of Dedication with Fr. Mick Moon, pastor, on Sunday, Oct. 10, at the 11 a.m. Mass.
World Mission Sunday, organized by the Propagation of the Faith, is a day set aside for Catholics worldwide to recommit themselves to the Church’s missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice. In 2010, World Mission Sunday is celebrated on October 24.
Annually, World Mission Sunday is celebrated on the next-to-last Sunday in October. As described by Pope John Paul II, World Mission Sunday is “an important day in the life of the Church because it teaches how to give: as an offering made to God, in the Eucharistic celebration and for all the missions of the world” (see Redemptoris Missio 81).
