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| Beth Ulaszek |
In response to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this past September, the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Diocese of Madison is providing a monthly series on a particular theme on marriage and family. Each theme is a chapter in the preparatory catechesis developed for the event entitled Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive, available in paperback from www.osvparish.com or for free online at www.worldmeeting2015.org
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| Julie Jensen |
“Women’s health” has become a hot-button issue lately, often for the wrong reasons.
But Our Lady of Hope Clinic, located on Odana Rd. on Madison’s west side, has positively focused on women’s health issues since it opened over six years ago.
As an avid long-distance runner, this is by far my favorite time of the year to run.
On most early mornings, I can be found on the trails of the many parks around south central Wisconsin.
Through the years, I have had many opportunities to run in some unique and stunning landscapes around the world. For me, running is not just physical, but helps keep me grounded mentally and spiritually.
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James Parker came out at age 17 and later entered into a relationship with another man.
He worked as a gay activist for a while, but his personal experiences of intimacy and human sexuality eventually led him to grasp that “same-sex marriage just doesn’t exist; even if you want to say that it does.”
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Having just returned from a week covering Pope Francis’ triumphant journey to the United States, I can confidently tell you that the news media are in love with the Vicar of Christ.
Time and again, commentators, pundits, anchorpersons, and editorialists opined that Pope Francis is the bomb.
Q. My mother made the decision to move to an assisted living facility.
The challenges of keeping up her home while attending to her own health have caused far too much stress for her.
She made the decision on her own and shared this with the family at a recent gathering.
Although we (siblings) are saddened to see mom move out of our family home, we are simultaneously relieved that hopefully life will be easier for her. We have started touring various facilities and find them to be very different.
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During the pope’s visit to America, I had the privilege of commenting for NBC News and for MSNBC.
Twice I was on for extended periods with Brian Williams, the former anchor for NBC Nightly News, and twice with Chris Matthews, the host of Hardball. I must say that both men are very good at what they do, namely, keeping a conversation going among several different people with varying points of view and assuring that things stay sufficiently lively and interesting.
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Pablo Casals, the great cellist and conductor, gazed at a baby and exclaimed, “You are unique. In the millions of years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. And look at your body; what a wonder it is! Your exquisite legs, your arms, your cunning little fingers. You may become another Shakespeare, Michelangelo, or Beethoven.”
St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, whose feast we celebrated on October 1, believed that people of her time feared God too much. She couldn’t understand how anyone could fear God, who came to us as a tiny helpless baby.
And yet, today there seem to be some who fear babies more than God.
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Editor’s note: George Weigel is in Rome reporting on the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family.
Since Pope Francis announced that two synods would examine the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family and work to devise more evangelically dynamic responses to that crisis, a lot of attention has focused on issues of Catholic discipline.
How does the Church determine that a marriage never existed and thus grant a decree of nullity? What is to be done about the sacramental situation of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics? How does the Church best prepare its sons and daughters for marriage?
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I had the extraordinary privilege of following the pope’s pilgrimage at very close quarters. I had this access both as a bishop and as a commentator for NBC News.
It was thrilling indeed to witness just how rapturously the American people received the pope and how affected the Holy Father was by this reception. Many images stay vividly in my mind: the pope kissing the forehead of the 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, the rabbi and imam praying together at the September 11th memorial, a little boy from a New York Catholic school showing the pope how to maneuver his way around a Smart Board.
