Author: Chris Lee

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Chris Lee

Pope Francis speaks truth to power

As the first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis defended the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate.

He said “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”

Living by the Golden Rule

The pope said, “We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'” (Mt 7:12).

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Chris Lee

Giving a child their own ‘space’ as they grow

Ask IPS

QUESTION: “My daughter has just started her first year of college. I want to give her space, but also to be supportive if she needs me. What’s the best way for a parent to strike that balance with a young adult?”

RESPONSE: William McKenna, M.S., Clinical Extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services

Transition within our lives can be difficult, and when those transitions involve our children, it can become even more demanding.

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Chris Lee

Wisconsin KC’s support bishops in taking action against sale, use of fetal body parts

Ronald Faust

In support of the bishops of Wisconsin: As Knights of Columbus we cannot be part of what Pope Francis has called the “complicit silence” of many who hear of atrocities and do nothing. We must act.

I invite you to consider that those same words apply completely and directly to the brutalization of women and children by Planned Parenthood. The intentional, vicious murder of innocents in the womb is an atrocity. That it is followed by the callous selling of their body parts should shock our culture into action.

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Chris Lee

St. Maria Goretti Parish in Madison hosts tour of saint’s relics

st maria goretti
St. Maria Goretti’s remains are encased inside a glass-sided casket. Inside the casket is a wax statue, which contains her skeletal remains. Her body is not incorrupt, and none of the sacred remains are visible. Nevertheless, the skeleton is complete save for small fragments that have been taken for placement in altars and for use in the Church’s ministry. (File photo)

MADISON — St. Maria Goretti Parish is one of more than 50 sites in the United States to host the major relics of its patron saint, St. Maria Goretti, as part of the “Pilgrimage of Mercy: The Tour of the Major Relics of St. Maria Goretti.”

The relics will be brought into the church at 5313 Flad Ave. on Friday, Oct. 16, at 8 a.m. and lie in repose there for public veneration beginning at 9 a.m. that day until 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison will celebrate a Solemn Mass at 7 p.m. on Friday evening.

Hundreds of pilgrims are expected to walk past the reliquary during the 22-hour period. October 16 is St. Maria Goretti’s 125th birthday.

Fr. Carlos Martins, CC, a Custos Reliquiarum (ecclesiastically appointed curate of relics) and director of Treasures of the Church, will lead the tour of the United States with the sacred remains of St. Maria Goretti. She is an immensely popular saint, and this is the first time her body travels to the United States and only the second time she has left Italy.

The youngest canonized saint in the Catholic Church, the 11-year-old Maria Goretti died July 6, 1902, after being stabbed 14 times in an attempted rape.

Her last words on her deathbed were of mercy toward her 20-year-old attacker: “I forgive Alessandro Serenelli . . . and I want him with me in heaven forever.”

The unrepentant Serenelli famously reported receiving an apparition of his victim within his prison cell, some six years into his 30-year sentence. That occasion began his dramatic transformation from being a violent and ruthless man to that of a gentle and renewed soul intent on spreading devotion to God and his saintly victim. In his words, “Maria’s forgiveness saved me.”

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Chris Lee

Holy Name Heights new residential community on Madison’s west side

MADISON — Imagine living in a unique apartment home in a beautiful historic building located on Madison’s west side, close to stores, restaurants, and golf courses.

As an added benefit for Catholics, this building offers weekday daily Masses and Eucharistic Adoration in a chapel featuring a large mosaic of Christ and stained glass windows, including one of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

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Chris Lee

Theme five: Creating the Future

Andy Galvin

To prepare for the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this September, the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Diocese of Madison is providing a monthly series on a particular theme on marriage and family. Each theme is a chapter in the preparatory catechesis developed for the event entitled Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive, available in paperback from www.osvparish.com or for free online at www.worldmeeting2015.org

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Chris Lee

Contact state legislators to support pro-life bills

To the editor:

Pro-life Catholics from across Wisconsin need to act now and contact our state representatives and state senators to support three important pro-life bills:

• Assembly Bill 305 will stop the sale and trafficking of aborted baby body parts in Wisconsin. If you have not seen the recent disturbing videos of Planned Parenthood’s staff harvesting baby body parts after abortions, go to the Center for Medical Progress website and watch all of the videos that have been released so far.

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Chris Lee

State scientists support ban on use of human fetal tissue in research in Wisconsin

Editor’s note: The letter published here is from six scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin who write in support of Assembly Bill 305, the fetal body parts bill being considered by the state Legislature.

Unprecedented attention has been given to Assembly Bill 305 in the Wisconsin Legislature that would restrict the use of abortion-derived fetal tissue for research.

Opponents of the bill, including those in biomedical research, have openly shared arguments against such restrictions. However, we, who are also scientists and doctors, do not share this view. We do not agree that research using human fetal or embryonic tissue from abortions or procedures such as IVF is ethical or a requisite approach for advancing scientific inquiry or preventing suffering.

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Chris Lee

Your life does not belong to you

It was revealed recently that, for the first time in its history, Harvard University, which had been founded for religious purposes and named for a minister of the Gospel, has admitted a freshman class in which atheists and agnostics outnumber professed Christians and Jews.

Also recently, the House and the Senate of California passed a provision that allows for physician-assisted suicide in the Golden State. As I write these words, the governor of California is deliberating whether to sign the bill into law.

Though it might seem strange to suggest as much, I believe that the make-up of the Harvard freshman class and the passing of the suicide law are very really related.

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