MCFARLAND — Many in this country view right as wrong and wrong as right and consider God, religion, and the Bible as obsolete, or worse, hateful.
How should Christians respond when our beliefs and religious freedom are under attack? We must first recognize that we are in a spiritual battle for the salvation of our souls and souls of our loved ones. Next, we need to determine the most effective weapons and strategies for this spiritual warfare.
For adults with disabilities, becoming socially isolated is a major concern. To address this issue within Rock County, Catholic Charities of Madison operates two programs out of the Community Connections facility that give adults experiencing intellectual and physical disabilities opportunities to connect socially.
The purpose of these programs is for adults with disabilities to experience community integration activities, learn social skills, and develop friendships. In all, these two programs offer increased activity, which has a positive impact on clients’ physical and emotional health, as well as their ability to care for themselves.
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The account of St. Paul’s address on the Areopagus in Athens, found in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, is a sort of master class in the evangelization of the culture, and anyone engaged today in that essential task should read it with care.
The context for Paul’s speech is his mission to Greece, which commenced when he crossed over from Asia Minor to the mainland of Europe. As the great Catholic historian Christopher Dawson indicated, this transition of an itinerant Jewish preacher from one side of the Aegean to the other would have excited the interest of no conventional historian or commentator of the time, but constituted, nevertheless, one of the most decisive events in history.
It signaled the introduction of Christianity to Europe and, through Europe, to the rest of the world. A first lesson for us: the evangelist never rests, for the call of the Lord is to announce the Good News to the ends of earth.
To the editor:
We have in my neighborhood in Madison annually a kind of reenactment of the tornado of human bodies witnessed by Dante in the Inferno’s scene about sins against chastity: a nude swarm swirling around busy downtown on bicycles, eliciting a wave of stares, grins, whoops, glee, and photo taking by bystanders, as perhaps the demons enjoy seeing tormented souls, and certainly a vignette of post-sexual-revolution social sin.
Madison’s “World Naked Bike Ride” either opposes fossil fuels or celebrates the immunity of moral chaos to correction by authority. Not everyone experiences it as altogether benign: a local woman who had been sexually assaulted in early life recently told a journalist that “seeing dozens, often hundreds of naked bodies unexpectedly is a trigger for her.”
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Recently, I gave a presentation at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Spring Meeting in Baltimore. My topic was what I identified as the second greatest crisis facing the Church today — namely, the massive attrition of our own people, especially the young. I trust that the first — around which most of our discussions that week revolved — is obvious to everyone.
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| Rachel Dietzman and Amy Lachuk |
Staff at The Beacon Homeless Day Resource Center are making an impact on the homeless service sector both in Madison and statewide.
In May, The Beacon was awarded a Community Reinvestment Fund grant through the Willy Street Co-op in the amount of $2,500. The funding brings weekly scheduled trauma-informed yoga and art-based support groups for women. This educational project addresses how women experience homelessness differently than men.
WISCONSIN DELLS — “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad,” said Bernadette Schaefer, president of the Madison Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (MDCCW), as she opened the 65th annual MDCCW convention earlier this month at St. Cecilia Parish Center here.
Hosted by the Sauk CCW, the one-day convention brought together women from across the diocese as well as guests from the Dioceses of La Crosse and Superior and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Fifty of the 140 attended the MDCCW convention for the first time.
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On February 4, 2015, at Vatican City, Pope Francis stated, “Every family needs a father who shares in his family’s joy and pain, hands down wisdom to his children, and offers them firm guidance and love. Being a father is not easy. It takes lots of patience and grace.’’
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There were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in all of the previous 19 centuries combined. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and many of their lesser-known totalitarian colleagues put millions of Christians to death for their faith in that terrible 100-year period.
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I write these words on Holy Thursday, as the Christian world enters into the holiest and most spiritually intense time of the year. The long season of Lent has prepared us to delve once more into the mystery of the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus.
As I have been contemplating the events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, my mind has turned, again and again, to the brute fact of pain.
