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| Marilyn Uselman |
As a Catholic child, going to Confession was a scary and anxious time for me. It involved dark small spaces, dirty drapes, and talking to a stranger about things I did wrong — not a good experience!
As I grew up, going to Confession still was anxiety-provoking. I came to realize I do not like small spaces with closed doors, or talking personally with a stranger. I have a hard enough time going into doctors’ offices. Avoidance is certain.
Later this fall, Catholic Charities will open the new Homeless Day Resource Center in Madison.
We have a lot of plans for the center, but right now I’m asking for your help because we are missing something . . . the center needs a name! I’m asking all of you to help by participating in our naming campaign!
Please give it some real thought. We need a good, strong, meaningful name that will stand the test of time.
“M-o-o-o-m! There’s a hole in my sock!”
It was Sunday morning, 20 minutes before Mass, and our household was a-flutter with our four children scurrying about donning church clothes, brushing teeth, and fixing hair.
My eight-year-old son was in his room, half-dressed, with a sock on one foot and disdainfully holding up the matching holey one. “I can’t wear this holey sock to church!” he cried.
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| Robert Enright |
Sixth in a series of seven articles on forgiveness.
It is so special that the Second Vatican Council referred to the family as “the domestic church” (Lumen Gentium #11).
On the Feast of the Annunciation this year (March 25), Pope Francis, in a talk to 27 heads of government, stated, “Europe finds new hope when she . . . invests in the family, which is the first and fundamental cell of society.”
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it is in the family that children learn to love.
It is so sad that the family also is the first place where too many children (and adults) learn conflict and division and discord.
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A few years ago, our Catholicism series film crew arrived at the shores of a large lake in far northwest Ireland, in the county of Donegal. We stepped onto a ferry and were taken to an island in the middle of the lake.
On the island was a collection of buildings, which in both architecture and color reminded me vividly of Alcatraz prison. The weather that day was horrific: temperature around 50, heavy winds, and a steady cold rainfall. Our hosts offered us tea and scones and then we made our way onto the island to begin our work.
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| Robert Enright |
Fifth in a series of seven articles on forgiveness.
All of a sudden, Martha, age 28, found herself unable to cope with life.
Until now, the challenges were few and manageable. She grew up in a stable two-parent household, was an excellent student, and graduated from a university. She married and was blessed with two young children.
Four weeks ago, her husband suddenly and unexpectedly asked for a divorce. This is something for which Martha was unprepared.
She is having trouble sleeping, sometimes is not patient with the children, and is constantly tired. She wishes to forgive, but she is unsure how to accomplish this. “I am confused, angry, and scared. I do not know how to even start forgiving him” is her honest response.
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I am always pleased when the feasts of St. Patrick and St. Joseph roll around every year, the first on March 17 and the second on March 19. Joseph is especially dear to the Italian people, who celebrate him with festive meals, and Patrick, of course, is specially reverenced by my own people, the Irish, who celebrate him with parades, parties, and (often) too much drinking.
Though separated by four centuries and though hailing from extremely different cultures, Patrick and Joseph have a great deal in common, spiritually speaking. For both stubbornly situated their lives in the context, not of the ego-drama, but the theo-drama, and therein lies their importance for the universal church.
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| Msgr. John Hebl |
Editor’s Note: During Lent, a series of articles on Forgiveness will be presented by Msgr. John Hebl, pastor emeritus and charter member of the International Forgiveness Institute (IFI), and Robert Enright, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, author, and founder of the IFI. This will help introduce the first ever International Conference on Forgiveness in July 2017 which IFI is sponsoring in the Holy City of Jerusalem. This is the fourth in the series of seven articles.
A number of years ago, an elderly priest in one of our neighboring dioceses began his Lenten homily by telling the people, “I hope I don’t die in the confessional.”
After pausing to get the parishioners’ attention, he added, “because they probably wouldn’t find my body for three days!”
What he meant, of course, is that many Catholics are not making use of the sacrament of God’s forgiveness commonly known as Confession. So the priest sits there all alone.
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The question of “who owns the Church” has had a stormy history in Catholic America, although the terms of reference have changed considerably over time.
In the 19th century, “lay trusteeism” — lay boards that owned parish property and sometimes claimed authority over the appointment and dismissal of pastors — was a major headache for the U.S. bishops.
Today, the question is more likely to arise from the wetlands of psychobabble; thus one Midwestern diocesan chancellor recently spoke about a diocesan “needs assessment” that “can give ownership to the people,” presumably of their lives as Catholics.
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I have been reading, with both profit and delight, Thomas Joseph White’s latest book, The Incarnate Lord: A Thomistic Study in Christology.
Fr. White, one of the brightest of a new generation of Thomas interpreters, explores a range of topics in this text — the relationship between Jesus’ human and divine natures, whether the Lord experienced the beatific vision, the theological significance of Christ’s cry of anguish on the cross, his descent into Hell, etc. — but for the purposes of this article, I want to focus on a theme of particular significance in the theological and catechetical context today.
