Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

How we respond to shock and scandal
This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

In the Gospel readings of this past Sunday we encountered a moment of tremendous shock and even of scandal. So often when we hear the word “scandal” in the Church these days, our minds are drawn immediately to the horrific travesties carried out by some who had promised to serve the Church but instead abused some of the most innocent of their flock.

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Kevin Wondrash

A scientist witnesses to Catholic faith

Heroes for Life by Lillian Quinones

As a young Catholic, I look for examples of successful scientists who witness to their Catholic faith, because in modern society, they are heroes.

Dr. Theresa Deisher, whose expertise is adult stem cell research, is a stellar example of a conscientious Catholic who is impacting lives by her work. Enjoy our first Guardians for Life interview!

Editor’s note: This is the first column in a series by Lillian Quinones, president of the Guardians for Life group at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison. The column will profile professionals who inspire us through their courageous witness to their Catholic identity as defenders of life.

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Kevin Wondrash

The Pill as health care?

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Physicians will sometimes prescribe a hormonal regimen (in the form of a hormonal contraceptive like the Pill) to treat certain gynecological problems like heavy menstrual bleeding, dysmenorrhea (painful periods), PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome), endometriosis, or other conditions like severe acne. In these cases, the Pill is used not as a contraceptive, but as a therapy for a medical condition.

This can be morally permissible under the principle of double effect, which allows for the treatment of a serious medical problem (the good effect), while tolerating its unintended consequences, when other less harmful treatments are not available. In this case, the unintended consequences would be the impeding of one’s fertility and the potential health risks and side effects of the Pill (the evil effect).

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Kevin Wondrash

What happened in Connecticut

Dear Friends,

It seems like forever ago that I saw the movie, The Exorcist (and it was forever ago in the sense that it was in the ’70’s) but there was one scene and one line that stuck with me. It was not any of the overblown portrayals of the Devil’s presence, though they did go overboard in that movie in certain instances, and attributed to the Devil certain things that the Devil could not do, just to make it more sensational.

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Kevin Wondrash

Taboos and tattoos

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

On TV these days, we’re seeing more and more programs about “body art” and tattoo design. Despite the apparent widespread acceptance of the practice, there are several problems with tattooing that go beyond the sanitary issues, disease transmission, and unclean inking needles that can be found in second-rate tattoo parlors.

Tattoos, as some who have gotten them have recognized, have negative associations. An article in the Dallas Morning News a few years ago chronicled the story of a young man named Jesus Mendoza, who was “going to great lengths to remove the six tattoos that hint at his erstwhile gang involvement. . .. He feels branded. ‘It’s the stereotyping,’ he said. ‘The question is: What do you think when you see a young Hispanic male with tattoos? You’re going to think gangs. And I think that, too, now.’”

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Kevin Wondrash

Beauty helps prepare us for Heaven

Last summer, I was honored to be part of a Conference of the Napa Institute with regard to Catholic leadership. There I addressed the relationship between freedom, beauty, and feelings, in the context of the truth that democracy requires authentic freedom on the part of those who are blessed to live out that form of government. I’ve touched briefly on some of those themes here before, but would like to examine them anew.

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Kevin Wondrash

Consciousness and abortion

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Imagine a deadly scenario like this: a successful businessman is rendered unconscious by medical professionals to help him heal after a serious car accident, using powerful pharmaceutical agents to cause a medically-induced coma.

A few days later, a business competitor, wanting him dead, enters the hospital and kills the comatose patient. During his trial, when questioned about the murder, the competitor tries to argue, with an unnecessarily detailed explanation, that, “the medically-induced coma rendered him quite incapable of feeling any pain, because those parts of his brain involved in sensory processing and pain perception were clearly decoupled from consciousness. So killing those who are unconscious, at least on the grounds that they might feel pain, should not be seen as problematic nor should it be restricted as a personal choice.”

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Kevin Wondrash

Give thanks to God every day

This column is the bishop’s communication
with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

My granny often repeated to me, “Bobby, getting old is not for sissies.” Granny lived to 96 and I’m only 65, but I can confirm that in this (as in most everything) granny was right on the money.

Last week, I headed out to Baltimore for the annual gathering of the bishops of the United States. We were just getting started with our meetings when I took a spill and fell (with full weight) face-first into the pavement. In the process I suffered several cuts, a broken nose, and a bruised knee. Thanks be to God, it wasn’t worse!

Fortunately there was another bishop and two priests right there with me, and I was off to Mercy Hospital, where the doctors forwarded me on to the University of Maryland Medical Center. If we could choose the timing of our accidents, I would have preferred, of course, to be with my own outstanding doctors at St. Mary’s, but as it turned out, the care I had was really top notch, and I remain so very grateful to all of those excellent women and men — each and every one of them.

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Kevin Wondrash

Learning to cook with ‘appeal’

Grandmom column by Audrey Fixmer

My late husband taught me two important lessons about cooking.

When I confessed to him a few weeks before our wedding that I knew nothing about cooking (zilch!), he advised me in his typical philosophical manner, “There are two ways to look upon the challenge of cooking: one as an art, which requires creative talent, and the other as a science, which requires a cookbook. Get a cookbook.”

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Kevin Wondrash

Changing hearts and minds
This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

By the time you see this (I hope) our political elections will have been decided, but as I write this column we’ve not yet reached Election Day. In many ways I’m glad for this, as it allows for me to write to you without being affected by those outcomes. At the end of the day, our hope does not lay in any political candidate or party, and our ultimate destination is not even anywhere in this world. Our hope rests always in the Lord, our God, and our ultimate destination is His home, His Kingdom.

Depending on who has won or lost the elections, our work may become easier or more difficult, but regardless who wins or loses, our job is unchanged. It is our work as Catholic women and men to do all we can, to welcome ever more the gift of His Kingdom. The race for political office has ended, and we have seen just how much time and energy (not to mention money) has been expended in order to insure victory for this or that man or woman for the span of four or six years. With this perspective we must ask ourselves what we are doing in the race toward heaven? How can we do anything less than to expend similar time and energy toward victory for eternity? The Apostle Paul uses the analogy of an athletic race (1 Cor 9:23-27) to encourage us in our efforts to, “run the race so as to win!” And that analogy holds true here as well!

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