Dear Friends,
This past week we celebrated the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross. There is no shortage of crosses in our lives, and we pray for one another and lift one another up as we encounter those crosses. It is through those crosses, which some of you experience right now, that can come the Resurrection victory. So engage the struggle to embrace your cross and do not forget the triumph which comes by way of our following the Lord.
Dear Friends,
The week of Labor Day now having come and gone, schools everywhere are kicking into “high gear,” and thus it’s important that we remember to pray for all of our students. It’s also a good time for Catholic parents to remember to reapply themselves to educating and forming their children in the faith, and for all of us to support them! It is a large task, but one which will bear fruit for all of eternity.
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| 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,
The week of Labor Day now having come and gone, schools everywhere are kicking into “high gear,” and thus it’s important that we remember to pray for all of our students. It’s also a good time for Catholic parents to remember to reapply themselves to educating and forming their children in the faith, and for all of us to support them! It is a large task, but one which will bear fruit for all of eternity.
Next week I’ll be blessed to celebrate two Masses with students, one with students at the UW-Madison, and another which will gather together students from all of the Catholic schools in our diocese. I can’t wait to be with all of these young, energetic young people. Next week’s issue of the Catholic Herald will also focus on the 32 men who I call “my sons” in a particular way. In recent weeks I’ve also seen almost all of the seminarians head back to school — and I can certainly identify with those parents who are missing students, who are back in the dorms!
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| 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,
As I write this column, we come quickly upon the Labor Day Holiday. It is, in some ways, a rather bittersweet milestone for me each year, as it signals the soon-to-come end of the days of warmth and sun (although this year any break from the extreme heat is not unwelcome!), and before we know it, we’ll be in the midst of winter.
At the same time, with increasing speed each year, Thanksgiving seems to rush upon us after Labor Day, and then Christmas — which is surely a blessed time.
Labor Day, however, allows us a breath and an opportunity to examine our efforts and, I would propose, to reapply ourselves to using our work — no matter what it is — to sanctifying the world around us. Each and every one of our labors, whether it be raising our children, working as a teacher, a salesperson, a lawyer, or a mechanic, should become a means by which we encounter God and witness to His concern for the world — and that’s my first point.
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| 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. |
In this past weekend’s Gospel (Jn 6:51-58), we hear Jesus say, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.” What is Jesus talking about, that he’s going to give us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink? Does He think we’re cannibals?
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| 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,
It was no shock at all for me to learn that our diocesan native son, Paul Ryan, had been chosen to be a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States. I am proud of his accomplishments as a native son, and a brother in the faith, and my prayers go with him and especially with his family as they endure the unbelievable demands of a presidential campaign here in the United States. It is not for the bishop or priests to endorse particular candidates or political parties. Any efforts on the part of any bishop or priest to do so should be set aside. And you can be assured that no priest who promotes a partisan agenda is acting in union with me or with the Universal Church.
It is the role of bishops and priests to teach principles of our faith, such that those who seek elected offices, if they are Catholics, are to form their consciences according to these principles about particular policy issues.
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| 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,
I hope that this summer has been as blessed for each of you as it has for me. As if it couldn’t get any better as we enter this week, I am preparing to spend time with our outstanding seminarians. Hopefully many of you have had a chance to meet some of the great men studying to give their lives in service to you, through Christ and His Church. Please keep them in your prayers, along with several new young women from our diocese who are entering into religious life this year.
In terms of our seminarians, I’d ask that you also give special consideration to offering what financial support you can to our St. Joseph’s Fund for seminarian education. When all is said and done, we may have 32 men studying for the Diocese of Madison. With the blessing of these outstanding men comes the responsibility of paying for their formation and education.
St. Michael Parish, Dane, and St. Patrick Parish, Lodi, are merged into Blessed Trinity Parish.
Rev. Msgr. James Bartylla, Vicar General, announces the following from Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, effective as indicated below:
