The practice of our Catholic faith finds its summary in the two-fold commandment given to us by Jesus: Love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind; and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Every part of the Church’s mission in action expresses some aspect of this love that the Lord bids us to embrace.
As your bishop, I find leading the many ministries, activities, communities, and organizations within the Diocese of Madison both inspiring and daunting, but the organizing principle at the heart of all of it is always the love of God and neighbor.
Living our faith
The center of our faith is the worship of God.
Our Church finds her nourishment and strength in the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist in every one of our parishes.
This central act of worshipping the Lord forms us as His beloved people in Christ, in whom we have been Baptized.
All the sacraments pour the gift of sanctifying grace into our souls, by which the Lord unites us to Himself and saves us from sin and death.
Our church buildings, sacramental preparation programs, formation of our seminarians, and ongoing support for our priests all exist to help every single person encounter Christ through the Scriptures and the sacraments.
At the end of the Gospel, Jesus commanded His apostles to go forth and proclaim the Good News to every creature and to make disciples.
Our evangelizing efforts, our catechetical programs, our schools, Bible studies, adult formation, and study groups are all ways to do just that as we live out the Great Commission, by which the Lord sends us into the world to share His saving Gospel with everyone.
This proclamation of the Word is central to all we do as Catholics, and we pour much energy and many resources into fulfilling the Lord’s command.
Jesus spent much of His earthly ministry healing the sick, teaching the crowds, forgiving sinners, raising the dead, and comforting the sorrowing.
He came to put back the broken pieces of our humanity and to restore our lost identity as beloved children of the Father.
God wants us already in this life to taste the abundance of His love and to know the power of His healing mercy.
God’s desire to save us in all aspects of our human personality — body, soul, mind, and heart — drives the many works of justice, compassion, and charity that the Catholic Church offers every day to millions around the world.
The Catholic Church does more to feed, house, educate, heal, and build up human dignity than any other institution on the planet.
We run more schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, and food pantries than anyone else because the Lord bids us to love our neighbor, especially the poor, the sick, and the suffering.
Here in the Diocese of Madison, Catholic Charities, the Knights of Columbus, SSM hospitals and clinics, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, crisis pregnancy centers, food pantries, and homeless shelters serve thousands of people daily so that every person, created in the image and likeness of God may realize their human dignity and know that they are loved, both by the Lord and by His people.
Millions of dollars and countless volunteer hours fuel these ongoing works of love and mercy in an astounding array of generosity so well lived.
Supporting the mission
The Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA) in the Diocese of Madison provides the necessary resources for all of the activities, programs, and assistance mentioned above to flourish, with the worship and love of God at the center of all of it.
When we profess and serve God as the Source of life, the Redeemer who saves us, and the Sanctifier who makes us holy, then we can live the mission of Jesus in all its beautiful aspects of loving God and our neighbor.
The financial contribution of every member of the diocese to the ACA makes this ongoing work of salvation viable.
The human need is constant: To preach the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus, to celebrate the sacraments for the salvation of the world, to form our children in the faith, to feed the poor and house the homeless, to help those with addictions and those with chronic loneliness, to do all that the Church does for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor.
These sacred and holy tasks will go on until the end of the world because Christ wants every person made in the image and likeness of His Father to live the abundance of His love now and to be happy with Him forever in the wonder of Heaven. God Himself has entrusted us with this mission, and we are blessed by it.
Thank you for the many generous ways you serve the Lord and the Church!
May I count on you to be generous to this year’s ACA appeal?
We will never fully know the good that the Lord will do with our sacrificial gifts but we do know that when we love as He loves, miracles of grace and mercy happen.
Blessings and prayers to you!
To support the 2025 Diocese of Madison Annual Catholic Appeal, visit https://madisondiocese.org/ch.