Category: Opinion

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Calls to abolish all nuclear weapons

Editor's View by Mary C. Uhler

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I’ve heard about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. But seeing a picture of the remains of a statue of  Mary that survived one of those bombs made those tragedies a reality for me.

A scorched head of a statue of Mary (pictured with this editorial) remained after the blast that destroyed Nagasaki’s Urakami Cathedral on August 9, 1945. The statue once graced the main altar of the cathedral. The haunting eyes of the statue remind viewers of what it might have been like for the 75,000 people who died during the blast.

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Mary C. Uhler, editor

Endangered species?

One definition of an endangered species is “a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.”

We usually don’t think about people as an endangered species. In fact, we seem to hear more about overpopulation than whether we have enough human beings in the world.

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Mary C. Uhler, editor

National Day of Prayer: Our country should continue its long tradition of public prayer

Should we be offering public prayers for our country? Should there be events such as the National Day of Prayer?

These questions have come to the forefront because of a ruling issued on April 15 in Madison by U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb. She said that the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment prohibition against laws respecting an establishment of religion. Judge Crabb did postpone enforcement of her ruling until all appeals are exhausted.

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Mary C. Uhler, editor

Pope Benedict XVI: In five years, he has proven to be an inspiring leader

Five years ago on April 19, the white smoke appeared and the bells were rung at St. Peter’s Basilica to announce that the Catholic Church had a new pope: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, who took the name of Pope Benedict XVI.

As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger had attempted to retire and spend more time writing. Pope John Paul II had encouraged him to remain in his office.

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Alicia Connolly-Lohr, Sun Prairie

Parents: beware of public school sex ed programs

To the editor:

The Healthy Youth Act is now Wisconsin law. In public school, sex ed programs’ mandatory topics now include: gender stereotypes, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, use of contraception and barrier methods, and what defines criminal sexual conduct and all using materials which do not promote bias against sexual orientation or sexually active children or pupils.

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Paul Kokoski, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Fatima visionary predicted suffering of Holy Father

To the editor:

In 1917, Jacinta Marto, one of three seers of Fatima, saw in a vision “the Holy Father in a very big house, kneeling by a table, with his head buried in his hands, and he was weeping. Outside the house, there were many people. Some of them were throwing stones, others were cursinghim and using bad language.”

“Poor Holy Father” she said, “we must pray very much for him.”

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