Popes Paul VI and John Paul II both described the Catholic Church as an “expert in humanity.” This term recognizes the truth that through its long history Catholicism has engaged and reflected on the fullness and complexity of the human experience.
Category: Columns
Holding students to a higher standard: New norms in diocese point us to the cross
We have all heard much in the media about the importance of our schools, and the importance of holding our students to high expectations and academic standards.
“Catholic Schools Raise the Standards,” the theme for Catholic Schools Week, echoes the popular news but reflects something which Catholic schools have been doing since St. Elizabeth Ann Seton opened St. Joseph Catholic School in 1810.
The school educated girls who, at that time, had significantly fewer educational opportunities than boys, and provided them with a solid academic foundation as well as skills necessary to make a living. Most importantly however, the Catholic school provided its students with a firm education in the Catholic faith. This ensured that students not only received a practical education, but that they learned to model their lives on Gospel values — the standards given to us by Christ himself.
Catholic Schools Week: A time to thank teachers
Catholic Schools Week 2013 is scheduled from January 27 to February 2. Its theme is “Catholic Schools Raise the Standards.” This theme highlights the launch of a new initiative to ensure consistent high standards at Catholic schools across the country. The logo designed for this week illustrates a chart of steady growth culminating in the highest achievement of all, a cross representing the faith that underscores all Catholic education.
The Catholic Church’s educational mission flows from Jesus’ life and teaching. The cross symbolizes the sacrificial love that Jesus teaches us to imitate. In the Dictionary of the Bible, Fr. John L. McKenzie wrote that Jesus spent more time teaching than anything else, including working miracles, signs, and wonders. Through education, the Church continues Jesus’ teaching by preparing her members to hear, live, and proclaim the Gospel. Good teachers are keys to successful Catholic schools.
The Pill as health care?
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).
Discuss living arrangement options with parent
Q: My mother is 88 and has lived independently all of her life. Now she is having some pretty serious health problems. She is in the hospital and will shortly be moved to a skilled facility for continued care. I know that Medicare does not cover the cost of such care for a long period of time. The problem is that I know she would like to go back home after the nursing home stay. I think it just might be time to think about living in the home permanently, as I know she cannot manage all of her care independently. I am not able to care for her and frankly, I don’t want to be her caregiver — I want to be her daughter. However, I feel bad that I am not offering to move her in with my family and me. Am I a bad daughter for not wanting to help? (Sun Prairie)
Confirmation: Sacrament and challenge
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says about this sacrament: “By the Sacrament of Confirmation [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed” (#1285).
The sacrament of Baptism incorporates one into the Body of Christ and hence makes one a member of Christ’s Church. What the Catechism means when it says that the baptized “are more perfectly bound to the Church” is that Confirmation, in effect, completes the process begun in Baptism, and fulfills what Christian Initiation is all about. This is why the traditional order of the sacraments in the Church, from our earliest evidence, is generally: Baptism, then Confirmation, and then Holy Eucharist.
News of great joy: three more seminarians
We begin this New Year with news of great joy: we have three new seminarians starting school this January.
Two of these men are college sophomores and one is going into pre-theology. With the addition of these three men we now have a total of 35 men in our seminary program. This is truly a cause for great rejoicing and thanksgiving to God for his continued favors to us.
Reflections on pope’s Day of Peace message
In his January 1, 2013, World Day of Peace Message titled “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” Pope Benedict XVI immediately lays out for us the foundation upon which the Church’s ministry for world peace must be built.
Using a challenging proclamation from the Second Vatican Council, the pope teaches that Christians must be committed “to sharing humanity’s joys and hopes, grief and anguish.”
More than absence of war
The Holy Father is reminding us that God’s peace is much more than the absence of war — it is the universal experience of justice and love.
Engaging in work on the new and the old evangelization
This is the first in a series of articles to be published on the topic of engaging in the work of evangelization — old and new — and how to live out the Year of Faith by engaging in this most important task. Keep reading in the weeks to come!
We are three months in. This Year of Faith was called for with the hope of transforming our world and the lives of those living in it. What has happened?
- A synod of bishops and lay leaders in the Church met in Rome for a month to talk about the New Evangelization last October
- A few hundred people in the Diocese of Madison came out to hear Tom Peterson, founder of Catholics Come Home, speak in Madison this past November.
- A couple parishes in the area have invited back those who had fallen away from the practice of their faith.
- Catholic churches were packed on Christmas and were less than half full the following Sunday.
An inspiring Christmas ceasefire
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As the first Christmas of World War I approached, Pope Benedict XV on December 7, 1914, asked the leaders of all warring governments to agree to an official ceasefire. He begged “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.”
Sadly, his plea was ignored by government leaders. But many of the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce.