Columns – Page 165 – Madison Catholic Herald Archive (2001-2025)

The power of the term, “Respect Life,” needs to be underlined in our minds. When we, in sharing our faith, share our respect for others, we are acknowledging their intrinsic worth and our belief that they are fellow humans to be loved and cherished. This message of loving respect is foundational for all our beliefs.

The other word, life, is too easily glossed over. “Life” for the new human begins when the sperm joins the egg and ends at natural death. All the stages and phases, ups and downs, challenges and soaring triumphs do not change the innate humanity of that unique person.

Our Catholic Schools

On October 2, 2008

Michael Lancaster, For the Catholic Herald

Planning process seeks to strengthen Catholic Schools

On Wednesday, Sept. 17, the Comprehensive Schools Study formally got underway as 26 people from around the diocese met to convene the first meeting of the steering committee. Pastors, principals, and parishioners from all corners of the diocese met to learn more about the planning process.

As the meeting began, I explained the history and background and goals of the planning process. The project stems from the directive that “All parishes, those with and without schools, will actively participate in a diocesan wide comprehensive schools study to promote and increase our diocesan commitment to Catholic education as outlined in the USCCB publication Renewing our Commitment to Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium.”

Living and Learning

On September 25, 2008May 19, 2021

Msgr. Daniel Ganshert

Autumn reminds us of our spiritual life

Ax felled autumn is no fall at all, death only has color when entered by the living.

The bright hues of orange, yellow, and red which will festoon our trees these coming weeks make an important statement. Namely, what was there all along finally becomes visible for us to see and enjoy.

Leaves which had been green for months gradually show their true colors as the seasonal process of dying takes its course. If this process were to have been stopped by laying an ax to the tree, the leaves would simply have turned brown as the result of having been cut off from their roots, their life source.

Word on Fire

On November 29, 1999

Bishop Robert Barron

The disorienting quality of real prayer

Editor’s note: Because of its length, this column by Bishop Robert Barron will be published in a two-part series.

One of the most impressive literary figures of the 20th century was the Irish writer Iris Murdoch. You may have heard of her surprising and thoughtful novels such as A Severed Head and The Good Apprentice; or perhaps you are conversant with her more abstract philosophical texts such as The Sovereignty of Good and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals.

She reached her greatest notoriety, posthumously, in the work of her husband John Bayley, who penned a moving memoir of his wife’s slow and emotionally wrenching descent into Alzheimer’s disease. To hear the story of one of the brightest women of her time gradually losing her mind is, to say the least, unnerving. But due to Bayley’s artful telling, the experience becomes, almost despite itself, uplifting as well.