Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

Film should be called The One Pope

The new and much-ballyhooed Netflix film The Two Popes should, by rights, be called The One Pope, for it presents a fairly nuanced, textured, and sympathetic portrait of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and a complete caricature of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

This imbalance fatally undermines the movie, whose purpose, it seems, is to show that old grumpy, legalistic Benedict finds his spiritual bearings through the ministrations of friendly, forward-looking Francis.

But such a thematic trajectory ultimately does violence to both figures, and turns what could have been a supremely interesting character study into a predictable and tedious apologia for the filmmaker’s preferred version of Catholicism.

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Kevin Wondrash

Tanzanian Night at McFarland parish to support St. Benedict Parish in Illungu, Tanzania

Tanzanian Chicken
Christ the King Parish in McFarland has a sister parish relationship with St. Benedict Parish in Tanzania in East Africa. Pictured above, a St. Benedict parishioner gives Julie Allington of Christ the King a live chicken on a 2019 trip to Tanzania. (Contributed photo)

MCFARLAND — Christ the King (CTK) Parish, McFarland is planning a fun and lively “Tanzanian Night” on Saturday, Jan. 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. to support its Sister Parish in Illungu, Tanzania, in East Africa.

All are welcome to come and enjoy authentic Tanzanian foods, a silent auction of Tanzanian items such as baskets and cloths, 50/50 raffles, informational booths, games, videos, songs by CTK children, and much more. Learn about another culture, while you help a mission and truly make a difference in people’s lives.

Helping parishioners in Tanzania

This fundraiser is to help the parishioners of St. Benedict Parish, who live in abject poverty in the remote and mountainous region of Ilungu.

The primary occupation is subsistence farming of maize, beans, and potatoes on small plots of land. Although most of the parishioners are not starving, they are poorly nourished, and there is little or no income for basic necessities.

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Kevin Wondrash

The power of Baptism

This Sunday, we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, the closing of the Christmas season and an opportune moment to thank God for the remarkable grace of our own Baptism.

Jesus receives the Baptism of repentance from John, not because He needs it, but to sanctify the waters of Baptism and to identify with us in our sinful, fallen state, without ever having sinned Himself.

This compassionate identification with our weakness and death reaches its ultimate saving conclusion in the mystery of the crucifixion and resurrection.

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Kevin Wondrash

Bishop Hying to speak at dinner

MADISON — The 2020 St. Thomas Aquinas Dinner and Lecture is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23, at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Madison.

Bishop Donald J. Hying will be the program speaker. He will focus on St. Catherine of Siena, her work with the Church, and her example of discipleship.

The event marks the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas and is part of the parish’s annual four-part series to honor Dominican saints on their feast days.

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Kevin Wondrash

Appointments (12-3-2019)

Msgr. James Bartylla, Vicar General, announces the following priest appointments made by Most Reverend Donald J. Hying, Bishop of Madison, effective as specifically stated below.

The following nine priests are reappointed to the office of vicar forane, per canons 553 and 554, effective December 3, 2019, for a term ending October 2, 2022, in the vicariates forane listed below:

• Very Rev. Fr. David Greenfield, V.F., vicar forane of the Columbia North Vicariate Forane

• Rev. Msgr. Duane Moellenberndt, V.F., vicar forane of the East Dane Vicariate Forane

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Kevin Wondrash

Working for peace in the new year

We begin each new year with the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. The World Day of Peace also occurs on January 1.

Mary, the mother of God, gave birth to the prince of peace, who helped the human race to begin anew to work for peace.

Be persons of peace

Since New Year’s is a time to make resolutions, one resolution might be to continue to try to be persons of peace during the new year.

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Kevin Wondrash

The Crown and the ‘primacy of grace’

Like, I daresay, most of the English-speaking world, these past couple of years I’ve been watching episodes of The Crown, the beautifully filmed, marvelously written program on the life and times of Queen Elizabeth II.

The series deals with the psychological dynamics within the royal family as well as with the cultural changes and political challenges that the Queen has faced in the course of her long reign. But what has been, at least to me, most surprising has been the insightful and sympathetic way in which it has addressed issues of faith.

Especially in the first season, we saw the fairly frequent conflicts between Elizabeth’s devotion to her family and her role as head of the Church of England.

In season two, there was a deeply affecting episode on the visit of Billy Graham to the UK in the mid-50s. We saw that, despite reticence regarding the American evangelist on the part of some in the British establishment, the Queen found his preaching illuminating and uplifting.

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Kevin Wondrash

May Holy Family bless, strengthen, and heal us

This Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, honoring the beautiful truth that God entered into the world through a family, an extraordinary one at that, but a human family.

Pondering this remarkable truth for 2000 years, the Catholic Church has a highly developed theology of marriage and family, seeing each Christian home as a domestic church, a sacred place where children are conceived, born, nurtured, and raised to know, love, and serve God.

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