To the editor:
Legislators in our nation’s capital drafting the next version of the Farm Bill need to get their priorities straight. The largest portion of the Farm Bill deals with SNAP, commonly known as food stamps.
Drafts of the proposed Farm Bill include serious cuts to the SNAP program, at a time when people need it the most. Hunger has been on the rise, despite the best efforts of food pantries, soup kitchens, and community volunteers.
To the editor:
President Obama and the head of the federal Department of Health and Human Services have decided not to allow girls under 17 years to get the morning-after pill, Ella, without a doctor’s prescription.
In the state of Wisconsin, Governor Walker signed into law in our public schools that abstinence only can be taught to our youth.
To the editor:
In his March 29 column, Bishop Morlino hits the nail on the head when he notes how the contraceptive mandate puts a disturbing new spin on the tired, old “my body, my choice” slogan.
What strikes me in particular is how the folks who’ve been telling us for years that the government has no place legislating about what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms are now arguing that the government has every right to do so by executive fiat.
To the editor:
On Sunday, March 18, approximately 6,000 area residents joined us in celebrating the opening of the new Monroe Clinic Hospital. It was an exciting day for our staff who also came out in full force to welcome the community and tour them through the new facility.
We are touched by the outpouring of support we have experienced through the grand opening events over the past week, and we want to take a moment to say thanks. We’d like to start by thanking the community for their personal interest and kind words during the open house and throughout the entire construction process.
To the editor:
From the first time we went to Rome, we could sense the greatness and beauty of the Catholic Church, the priests and nuns dressed in their habits walking through the streets of Rome as a visible sign of Christ and his Church.
But the recent Diocese of Madison Ad Limina Pilgrimage took me beyond my imagination. To be in the excavations below St. Peter’s Basilica and to visit the place where St. Peter’s bones remain, I felt transported — in those moments neither time nor space existed. I realized the triumphant, suffering, and militant Church is One, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman. I cried like Mary Magdalene because I could not contain my emotions.
To the editor:
Recent media reports from the Middle East and beyond indicate that many Christians of various denominations and rites in Syria are quite nervous, some going so far as to question whether the Arab Spring will wind up being the Christian Winter; this is also a concern for Alawite, Druze, and Shi’ite communities in Syria and Lebanon.
There is no question that what is going on inside Syria cannot be justified as far as implementation goes — unquestionably, the current regime is despotic and shooting at civilians with artillery and all the rest is simply beyond defense. However, seeing what has happened in Iraq and Egypt so far shows that perhaps helping the regime change is vastly preferable to changing the regime.
To the editor:
In the Saturday March 10 is of The New York Times, writer Samuel G. Freedman highlights the support that various clergy and congregations have shown to their parishioners and local communities in the midst of the mortgage crisis in “Mortgage Crisis Inspires Churches to Send Lenten Season Message to Banks.”
In the spirit of Lent, churches are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures, moving church monies out of the major banks involved in widespread foreclosures to local banks, even supporting families at meetings with their bank.
To the editor:
At a recent gathering at our parish, I overheard a group of people discussing the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate. The consensus of their conversation could be summed up as follows: “The bishops are getting way too riled up over this issue. It is an election year after all and the president will back down on this.”
As Archbishop Chaput stated, “The current administration prides itself on being measured and deliberate. The current HHS mandate needs to be understood as exactly that.”
To the editor:
John Murphy’s letter (February 9 issue of Catholic Herald) claims that Newt Gingrich, in calling President Obama the “food stamp President,” meant to demean African-Americans.
Mr. Murphy should be advised that ascribing racist motives to someone without any supporting evidence is calumny and therefore, sinful. Whatever one may think of Mr. Gingrich, his basic point that food stamps and dependency have increased exponentially under this president is factually correct.
To the editor:
The struggle over the national government’s mandated financing of “reproductive health services” has, up to now, been mostly carried out under the religious liberty clause in the Bill of Rights. This is a sound, but somewhat limited, defense.
It should be remembered that the Bill of Rights was an afterthought to the original Constitution, only consented to after it looked like the adoption of the new Constitution would meet strong opposition.
