Category: Columns

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Fr. Donald Lange

Feast of Immaculate Conception points to Advent

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, a column by Fr. Donald Lange

Franz Werfel wrote a popular book called The Song of Bernadette. The reason he wrote this book goes back to World War II.

Shrine at Lourdes, France

As a controversial Jew in occupied France, he was on the Nazi hit list. He and Alma, his wife, fled from the Nazis who pursued them.

They sought shelter in Lourdes where the famous shrine of Mary is located. One night he went alone to the shrine.

In the darkness, he prayed, “God, I’m not a believer. I must be honest and say so. I am a Jew. But in my extreme need, on the chance that I could be wrong, I ask you to help me and my wife. If you see us safely to the United States, I promise to write a story of Lourdes for all the world to read.”

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George Weigel

Focused on the New Evangelization

The Catholic Difference column by George Weigel

There’s a lot for U.S. Catholics to be thankful for at Thanksgiving 2013: seminaries that have turned the corner from the doldrums of the immediate past and are now full, or getting close; a reform of the liturgical reform that is bringing a new sense of the sacred back to Catholic worship; a pope who’s put a new face on the Church while holding fast to the Church’s settled teaching; the finest multimedia exposition of Catholic faith ever produced, Father Robert Barron’s Catholicism series; strong leadership from our bishops in meeting challenges to religious freedom and moral reality; a burgeoning men’s movement that draws thousands to witness for Christ; a new feminism that rejects a unisex approach to life and that is robustly pro-life.

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Sr. Margie Lavonis

Expressing gratitude

Cutting Edge by Sr. Margie Lavonis

When I think of November, three things always come to mind. For Catholic Christians it has traditionally been a time when we pray for those who have died and give thanks for the ordinary saints, living and deceased, who have touched our lives. We also celebrate Thanksgiving, which is one of the favorite holidays of many Americans.

Saying ‘thank you’ to others

Every time I go to a wake or funeral — and I have been to many lately — and hear the beautiful comments made about the persons who died, I cannot help but wonder how many of those things were said to that person when he or she was alive?

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Fr. Donald Lange

Gratitude is our response to God’s blessings

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, a column by Fr. Donald Lange

Thanksgiving is a national holiday when we Americans thank God for our blessings.

Origins of the holiday

Its roots go back to the pilgrims whom the Old Testament influenced. After a severe winter when over half of the pilgrims died from scurvy, exposure to the elements, and other causes, they set aside three days to thank God for their blessings. One way that they thanked God was by sharing their blessings with Indian friends.

The pilgrims can inspire us to thank God for our blessings on Thanksgiving Day by sharing with friends, family, and the needy.

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Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Sex, truth, and the illumination of our guilt

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Guilt has gotten a lot of bad press recently. We live in an age where guilt is practically always something bad, something to get past with the help of a shrink.

Particularly when discussing sex, people will declare that religion and morality do nothing more than make people feel guilty.

Andrew Aaron, a sex and marriage therapist in New Bedford, Mass., seems to subscribe to this view: “Through centuries,” he writes, “religious education has associated sex with what is wrong and sinful rather than what is sacred. Instead of an expression of the divine, sex is suspiciously regarded as weakness of the flesh. The result of this influence is that sexuality, a natural part of being human, is tainted with shame, guilt, and ambivalence.”

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Jean Mueller

Holiday traditions sometimes need to be changed

Ask Jean column by Jean MuellerQ: This is my least favorite time of year. I want to look forward to the holidays, but I dread them.

It just brings up memories of the gatherings we used to have but no longer can. My parents are still living, but dad has a type of dementia and mom has a bad heart along with many other medical conditions. They are now in an assisted living facility.

My siblings all make it a point to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but honestly it causes so much stress I wonder if it is worth it. It is just not the same and I think it makes mom feel bad that she can no longer host the traditional gathering.

My siblings are very set in their ways and don’t want to give up the appearance of a happy family celebration, even though it is far from happy for any of us.

How can I help my family realize we need to change the way we celebrate these holidays? (from a daughter in Cross Plains).

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Abbot Marcel Rooney

The Sacrament of Matrimony

By Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

year of faith column logo

This is the last article in the Abbot’s special Year of Faith series on the seven sacraments.

Rooted in scriptural images

The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes: “Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with the vision of the ‘wedding-feast of the Lamb’” (CCC 1602; Rev 19:7, 9; Gen 1:26-27).

No wonder that the Church’s theology of the Sacrament of Matrimony is deeply rooted in sacred Scripture.

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George Weigel

Church is being persecuted more than ever

The Catholic Difference column by George Weigel

Each issue of the admirable ecumenical journal, Touchstone, includes a department called “The Suffering Church.” It’s a title that Catholics of a certain age associate with purgatory; in Touchstone’s vocabulary, however, “the Church suffering” is the Church being purified here and now by persecution. It’s a useful reminder of a hard fact.

For that hard fact too rarely impinges on the Christian self-awareness, much less the Christian conscience, of the Church Comfortable, the Church Lax, or the Church of Nice — even though the historical commission created by John Paul II in preparation for the Great Jubilee of 2000 made clear that Christians today live in the greatest tribulation-time in Christian history.

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Tony Magliano

Earth is dangerously warming — and we’re causing it

Making a Difference column logo

I usually write a column on global warming during the height of summer heat — it’s harder for people to deny global warming when they’re sweating.

But the highly authoritative United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recent report, “Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis” (http://www.ipcc.ch), has important warnings for us to seriously consider now.

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