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When he spoke to Congress last month, Pope Francis quietly urged his listeners to heed the Golden Rule of “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
But there is another golden rule. The late Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus liked to refer to it from time to time. Commenting (with disfavor) on the nature of “old school politics,” Dreyfus observed that the golden rule of such politics is “He who has the gold makes the rules.”
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At this time each year, the Office of Catholic Schools collects data detailing the state of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Madison.
When looking at data from the past few years, we have seen some exciting trends, such as the addition of grades six to eight at three different schools, the addition of three-year-old pre-school programs at several schools, and marked enrollment increases at several Catholic schools in Dane County.
These positive signs indicate growing enrollment and a focus on continuous improvement and development. While growth comes with certain challenges, it is a reason for great hope for the future of Catholic schools.
While this growth is exciting and encouraging, many Catholic schools, especially those in rural communities, are facing a different set of challenges: how to remain vital and vibrant in communities where the general population is shrinking, leaving an ever smaller pool of students from which to draw.
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| Monica Rose Quinones |
Last year I heard an amazing Relevant Radio interview given by the president/CEO of Military Outreach USA.
Retired Army Major General James Mukoyama was talking about his inspiration to found an organization to help veterans.
“We bring programs and resources to churches and organizations to create awareness of issues affecting our veterans and then teach how help can be provided at the community level,” said Joe Palmer, executive director. If we all do a little, we can accomplish a lot as a community, he said.
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Toward the end of the liturgical year, we Catholics hear at Mass from the mysterious, often confounding, and utterly fascinating Book of Daniel.
Recent scholarship has demonstrated that the Book of Daniel had an extraordinarily powerful influence on the first Christians, providing them a most important template for understanding the significance of Jesus.
Daniel is, of course, an example of apocalyptic literature, which in the common understanding means that it has to do with the end of the world.
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About 15 years ago, I prepared an elective class at Mundelein Seminary which I entitled “The Christology of the Poets and Preachers.” In this course, I endeavored to explore the Catholic tradition’s non-technical, more lyrical manner of presenting the significance of Jesus.
I studied the literary works of Dante, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and G.K. Chesterton, and I also investigated in detail the sermons of many of the greatest masters: Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, Bernard, Aquinas, Newman, and Knox, among others.
What struck me with particular power, and caused me, I confess, to re-think things rather thoroughly was this: none of these figures — from the late second century to the 20th century — whose sermons we specially revere and hold up for imitation, preached the way I was taught to preach.
Editor’s note: During this Year of Consecrated Life, this is the eighth in a series based on the Second Vatican Council’s document, Perfectae Caritatis (Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life) written by Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, former abbot primate of the Benedictine order who now resides in Madison.
In this commentary on the Decree of the Second Vatican Council, On the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life (Perfectae Caritatis), we have been reflecting on how the council fathers envisioned a deep renewal of what the Church calls “the Consecrated Life.”
Number 12 of the decree speaks of one of the evangelical counsels, chastity, as at the core of that life.
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| Fr. Gregory Ihm |
In 1793 began the Reign of Terror in France known as the French Revolution when many priests, Religious, and Catholic lay faithful were murdered because of their association with the Church.
One man had a particular hatred for priests and was famous for his style of execution: slitting their throats. Several years after the Reign of Terror, this man grew old, sick, and weaker.
His wife, a hidden Catholic, called in a priest she knew to anoint her husband because she feared for his soul.
(Part II of a two-part series.)
Thank you for your prayers last week during my Grand Canyon run.
My journey started with a group of four men and two women ages 25 to 58. At 3:10 a.m. on October 26, we knew we had a long trail ahead of us. While it was daunting and emotions were mixed with fear and anticipation, we all commented about the beauty and light of the moon.
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Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a splendidly told tale of survival and pluck, reminiscent of the novel Robinson Crusoe and the films Life of Pi and Castaway.
In this case, the hero is Mark Watney, an astronaut on a mission to Mars who is left behind by his crewmates when he is presumed dead after being lost during a devastating storm.
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We begin November by celebrating the feast of All Saints.
On All Saints Day, we remember and we honor both the canonized and non-canonized saints of the Catholic Church. Both invite and inspire us to imitate their Christ-like lives.
