Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

To give or not to give: The marital question

In a recent column, David O’Brien, the associate director of religious education for lay ministry in the Archdiocese of Mobile, Ala., recounts the story of Agnes and Jake, devout Catholics who conceived and delivered four children during the first five years of their marriage.Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Agnes described how Jake, “wanted to be a good father and husband, and he couldn’t see how that could happen if we continued to have more children. In short, he was getting a vasectomy.”

Spouse no longer open to life

Agnes had a strong Catholic formation, and understood that married couples should not engage in sexual acts that have been intentionally blocked or “rendered infecund.” She struggled with Jake’s new stance, and dug her heels in.

She wondered how she could possibly be an authentic witness to the Gospel “if within my marriage, I was no longer open to life? How could I minister to other women and encourage them to be bold in their faith if I wasn’t living it myself? And what do I teach my children about marriage and sex when their father and I weren’t aligned?”

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Kevin Wondrash

Giving thanks this Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all who joined in prayerful support of us bishops as we recently met in Baltimore for our annual fall assembly. The meeting was very upbeat and very joyful – in very large part due to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, his wonderful wit and sense of humor, and his determination to expedite our proceedings using every possible tactic. The archbishop’s approach meant that we bishops had more time for fraternal companionship, and that the meeting was a time when the Holy Spirit, though Archbishop Dolan and our new, gracious, and warm Apostolic Nuncio, confirmed us in our faith.

 

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Kevin Wondrash

Vaccinating our children for sexually transmitted diseases

Last month, an advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta recommended that nine- to 12-year-old boys be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus transmitted through sexual contact. The goal of the recommendations was to prevent cancers caused by HPV, such as certain cancers of the digestive tract.

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

The same committee had already recommended, back in March of 2007, that girls and young women between the ages of nine and 26 be vaccinated against HPV, to help prevent various cancers of the reproductive tract, such as cervical cancer.

Raises ethical concerns

While the motivation to prevent cancer and diseases is clearly good, a universal recommendation of this type raises ethical concerns. Because the recommendations of the committee relate to important aspects of human behavior and sexuality at formative ages for children and adolescents, parents need to look at the psychological and social messages they might be conveying by choosing to vaccinate their children against HPV.

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Kevin Wondrash

Faith of our Fathers

grand mom

I am most thankful this year for my astonishing discovery that traveling in Europe is still possible in your 80’s as long as you have a young and loving travel companion.

I recently did it with my 26 year-old granddaughter, Hillary, and a fun-loving group of Luxembourg Americans. There were 29 of us plus three guides.

Touring the countryside

I loved the rides on the tour bus each day because they were never too long (Luxembourg is only the size of Rhode Island) and the scenery was magnificent.

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Kevin Wondrash

Facing terminal illness realistically

In modern times, dying is more and more often portrayed as a cold, clinical reality to be kept at arm’s length, relegated to the closed doors of a hospital, almost hermetically sealed from the rest of our lives.

When it comes to the event itself, we diligently work to avoid confronting it, addressing it, or acknowledging it. Because of this cultural backdrop, patients receiving a diagnosis of a terminal illness can be tempted to indulge in unrealistic expectations about what lies ahead, clinging to unreasonable treatment options and hoping for highly improbable outcomes.

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Kevin Wondrash

Dangers of human stockpiling

A recent news report chronicled a Chinese woman named Huang Yijun. Sixty years ago, her unborn child died, but the pregnancy was never expelled from her body. Instead, her baby’s body slowly began to calcify inside her, becoming a crystallized, stone-like mass.

Such stone babies (known as lithopedions) are extremely rare. When Mrs. Huang was 92 years old, the baby was discovered in her abdomen and surgically removed.

This rare medical event prompts us to consider a thought experiment. Imagine a drug that could be injected into a child to crystallize him, but without killing him. The process would turn the child into a static mass for as many years as the parents wanted; another injection would reverse the process, and allow the child to wake up and continue growing.

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Kevin Wondrash

Overcoming evil with the power of mercy

Under the Gospel Book by Bishop Robert C. Morlino
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:

On Sunday, so many of us were united in prayer for the victims and the survivors, and for the families of 9/11, in a special way. The men and women who were affected by this event have all been invited to participate in the suffering of Jesus, which guarantees the Resurrection. But it is an invitation to suffering and, in that sense, it was a somber day of remembrance and we cannot cover it over or white-wash it, because, simply, it was a day that changed the way we live, day-in and day-out, forever.

Of course we were bombarded with information and reflection on 9/11 on the television and internet. There was no escaping it unless you simply avoided most of the major channels all day. The media talked a lot about attitudes of revenge. Asking, was our retaliation sufficient? Will our retaliation ever be complete?

But, beyond praying for the victims, survivors, and their families, the real focus of 9/11 should be two-fold for all of us. Our first focus should be the opening phrase of last Sunday’s First Reading, “Anger and wrath are terrible things” (Sir 27:30). And our second focus should be how such terrible things might be overcome.

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