Category: Columns

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Julianne Nornberg

God’s gift of laughter

Everyday Faith column by Julianne Nornberg

Our Lord loves laughter. I know firsthand because He gave me my husband and my children, who bless me with the gift of laughter every day.

For example, they love to tease me good naturedly about my obsessive-compulsive tendencies regarding germs.

Since my children were babies, I’ve always been fastidious about everyone having clean hands.

So, when my husband was boarding an airplane for a work-related trip, I texted him to ask if he remembered to sanitize his hands after getting settled in his seat.

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Linda Schoenmann

Healed by the relics of saints

Linda Schoenmann

In the spring of 2018, I was pretty sure I had breast cancer based on many signs God gave me while going through medical tests. But I also noticed God surrounded me with breast cancer survivors, so I felt I would be OK. I trusted God had a plan to bring good out of this situation.

I offered up my suffering for the conversion of sinners; for our bishop, priests, seminarians, and vocations; and for Valley of Our Lady Monastery, a community of Cistercian nuns who need a new facility. I turned to these beautiful brides of Christ knowing I could count on their pure prayers, which are amplified by the intercession of Our Lady and over 100 saints whose relics are entrusted to them!

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Bishop Robert Barron

Finding God everywhere and everyday

There is, to be sure, a stress within the biblical tradition that God is radically other: “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.” (Isaiah 45:15) and “No one shall see [God] and live” (Exodus 33:20).

This speaks to the fact that the one who creates the entire universe from nothing cannot be, himself, an item within the universe, one being alongside of others.

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Rachel Dietzman and Amy Lachuk

Persons with Disabilities need Community and Connections

For adults with disabilities, becoming socially isolated is a major concern. To address this issue within Rock County, Catholic Charities of Madison operates two programs out of the Community Connections facility that give adults experiencing intellectual and physical disabilities opportunities to connect socially.

The purpose of these programs is for adults with disabilities to experience community integration activities, learn social skills, and develop friendships. In all, these two programs offer increased activity, which has a positive impact on clients’ physical and emotional health, as well as their ability to care for themselves.

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Bishop Robert Barron

St. Paul’s master class in evangelization

The account of St. Paul’s address on the Areopagus in Athens, found in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, is a sort of master class in the evangelization of the culture, and anyone engaged today in that essential task should read it with care.

The context for Paul’s speech is his mission to Greece, which commenced when he crossed over from Asia Minor to the mainland of Europe. As the great Catholic historian Christopher Dawson indicated, this transition of an itinerant Jewish preacher from one side of the Aegean to the other would have excited the interest of no conventional historian or commentator of the time, but constituted, nevertheless, one of the most decisive events in history.

It signaled the introduction of Christianity to Europe and, through Europe, to the rest of the world. A first lesson for us: the evangelist never rests, for the call of the Lord is to announce the Good News to the ends of earth.

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Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.

Concerns about harvesting body parts

Most people recognize the importance of obtaining consent before retrieving organs from the bodies of deceased persons. They also understand the necessity of showing respect for those bodily remains following death.

Selling body parts

Recent news stories have chronicled the troubling story of a funeral home in Colorado clandestinely taking body parts out of corpses and selling them to medical supply companies.

One family was horrified to learn that their mother’s head, arms, pelvis, and parts of her legs had been harvested without their knowledge or consent. They and others are now suing the company.

The funeral home had been selling body parts to places as far away as Saudi Arabia, and returning containers of ashes to the families that did not contain any actual trace of their loved ones.

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Bishop Robert Barron

Millennials, Jordan Peterson, and what matters

Recently, I gave a presentation at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Spring Meeting in Baltimore. My topic was what I identified as the second greatest crisis facing the Church today — namely, the massive attrition of our own people, especially the young. I trust that the first — around which most of our discussions that week revolved — is obvious to everyone.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

‘Why keep doing it?’

The eight-year won/loss record reads 19 wins, 40 losses, and five ties — a winning percentage of .322

As a note, by the time this column goes to press, one of those totals will be one number higher, hopefully in the win column.

In most major sports, those numbers would necessitate sweeping personnel and management changes, but not here — the wins and losses aren’t what’s important.

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Rachel Dietzman and Amy Lachuk

The Beacon staff makes impact locally and statewide

Rachel Dietzman and Amy Lachuk

Staff at The Beacon Homeless Day Resource Center are making an impact on the homeless service sector both in Madison and statewide.

In May, The Beacon was awarded a Community Reinvestment Fund grant through the Willy Street Co-op in the amount of $2,500. The funding brings weekly scheduled trauma-informed yoga and art-based support groups for women. This educational project addresses how women experience homelessness differently than men.

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