Category: Columns

On
George Weigel

Wanted: A synod of affirmation

Pope Francis has called a special session of the Synod of Bishops, which will meet from October 5 to 19 and prepare the agenda for the ordinary session of the synod that is scheduled for the fall of 2015; both sessions will focus on the family.

In my view, the synod should focus on two related themes: marriage culture is in crisis throughout the world; the answer to that crisis is the Christian view of marriage as a covenant between man and woman in a communion of love, fidelity, and fruitfulness.

To focus the conversation elsewhere is to ignore a hard fact and a great opportunity.

Collapse of marriage culture

The collapse of marriage culture throughout the world is indisputable. More and more marriages end in divorce, even as increasing numbers of couples simply ignore marriage, cohabit, and procreate.

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Fr. Donald Lange

Supporting the rights of the unborn

When I taught religion at Beloit Catholic High, I invited pro-life speakers to give talks. I especially remember a pro-life doctor who described the tragedy of aborted babies. During his talk, he wept. Each tear convinced us that he truly believed that unborn babies were persons. Aborting them was destroying human lives.

Tears flowed from the eyes and hearts of committed pro-lifers when on January 22, 1973 in the Roe v. Wade decision the Supreme Court legalized abortion. Their ruling made it legal for mothers to abort their unborn baby.

The Church position on life

In no. 2270 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church it says, “From the first moment of existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person . . . among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.” The Church’s position, which recognizes the individual as human from conception until death, is supported by natural law.

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John Huebscher

Pew survey looks at religion and politics

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

Polls and surveys are not infallible. Nor do they define what is true. But they do have their uses.

If they are conducted carefully and without bias, they can offer insights regarding public opinion or perceptions at a given moment in time. Among other things, polls can help us understand the mood of the moment and confirm or question trends of changing opinion.

Among the more respected polling organizations is the Pew Research Center. The center has a particular interest in measuring the role of religion in public life and how those who identify as adherents of a particular religion feel about issues and events.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Parable of the talents revisited

The attendance at our Mass at Mundelein Seminary on Labor Day weekend was sparse. Many of the students had gone home while others were on a special tour of Chicago churches.

The celebrant and preacher for the Sunday Mass was Fr. Robert Schoenstene, our veteran Old Testament professor. Father Schoenstene offered the best interpretation I’ve ever heard of a particularly puzzling parable of the Lord, and I wanted to make sure his reading got a wider audience.

Rich man gives talents to servants

The parable in question is the one concerning the rich man who gives talents to three of his servants and then sets out on a journey. Upon his return, he assesses the situation and discovers that the servant to whom he had given five talents had invested them fruitfully and that the servant to whom he had given three talents had done the same.

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On
Tony Magliano

The truth about climate change

“Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change . . . loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?”

These aren’t the radical words from the leader of a secular environmental organization, no; these are the radical words from the former leader of the Catholic Church!

In his 2010 World Day of Peace message titled, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote that “it would be irresponsible not to take seriously” the signs of a growing environmental crisis.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Calvary: portrait of a priest-shepherd

St. Pope John Paul II said that a priest should have the heart of Christ the Good Shepherd.

Far too many saccharine paintings of effeminate Jesuses in the midst of delicate lambs have conduced toward a misconstrual of this image as something sentimental and harmless.

But shepherds not only had the smell of their sheep (to use Pope Francis’ language), but they also wielded a stick to bring back strays and fend off threats. Real shepherding was, and is, a dirty, hard-edged business.

John Michael McDonagh’s film Calvary shows, with extraordinary vividness, what authentic spiritual shepherding looks like and how it feels for a priest to have a shepherd’s heart.

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Jean Mueller

Living independently involves many aspects

Q My dad is in his early 90s and fortunately has enjoyed really good health.

He lives alone since my mother died and is doing a great job of caring for himself.

I visit twice a week and have lunch with him and check up on things, but he is really a good role model for maintaining independence.

As his only child, I want to make sure I am not missing anything related to his health and well-being.

Are there things that need to be in place to assure he can stay in his home?

I guess what I am asking is what is out there for older individuals to help them stay safe?

(From a daughter in Columbus)

A You bring up a great point, and fortunately, there is a great deal of information and support in this area.

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Fr. Donald Lange

Annual priets’ assembly offers special grace

A special grace of my priesthood is the privilege of participating in the annual Diocesan Presbyteral Assembly held at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells from September 21 to 24.

The Presbyteral Assembly grew out of the landmark Madison Diocese Emmaus retreat in 1980, which was intended to bolster the spiritual lives of us priests. It did.

Since I was in high school work at Beloit Catholic High, I rarely was able to attend diocesan functions, but I was free during summers. During summer school, I learned that this was also true of priests who taught high school in other dioceses. I was happy that Bishop Cletus F. O’Donnell asked all active priests to attend.

Emmaus experience

Msgr. Frank Bognanno of the Diocese of Des Moines was chosen to lead the Emmaus retreat. The bishop of Des Moines was Bishop Bullock, who later became our bishop. Father Frank returned to Madison for Bishop Bullock’s anniversary celebration. He also led an inspiring priests’ retreat in 2002.

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Fr. Robert Barron

The Gospel according to The Hobbit

Like Star Wars, The Divine Comedy, and Moby Dick, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is the story of a hero’s journey. This helps to explain, of course, why, like those other narratives, it has proved so perennially compelling.

The hero’s tale follows a classical pattern: a person is wrenched out of complacency and self-absorption and called to a great adventure, during which he (or she), through struggle, comes to maturity and vision.

Summoned to adventure

The Hobbit begins, humbly enough, with this line: “in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” Tolkien is quick to clarify that this is not a nasty or unkempt hole, but rather a cozy place, filled with fine furniture, doilies, and a well-stocked kitchen. This is the homey space from which Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit) will be summoned to adventure.

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Audrey Mettel Fixmer

Continuing education in our senior years

“Guess who is using a calculator these days?” said my husband Bob, as he set down his suitcase just inside the front door. “My mother!”

No! Not the woman who stubbornly maintained that not while she had the brains God gave her . . .

This was back in the late 60s or early 70s when Bob was traveling on business trips that rarely took him in the vicinity of his parents’ Illinois home, and now he recounted the happy visit when he was able to give them one of the calculators his company issued and teach them how to use it.

“I wish you could have seen how delighted they were with their new ‘toy’ after I taught them how to use it.”

Pleasant reminder

I was reminded of that incident recently when I visited my son Tom and his wife in Colorado.

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