Tag: bishop

On
Brent King, Communications Director, Diocese of Madison

Former seminary could be transformed into housing community

The Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, formerly Holy Name Seminary, may be transformed into a multi-family housing community. (Catholic Herald photo/Kat Wagner)

MADISON — A Madison icon, the former Holy Name Seminary, a neo-colonial revival landmark that welcomed its first students in 1964 and has served as the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center (BOC) since the seminary was closed in 1995, may be transformed into a multi-family housing community, officials at the Diocese of Madison announced September 25.

The diocese signed a letter of intent with Gorman & Company to enter exclusive negotiations for a development contract and 60-year lease agreement to renovate the building as a “certified historic rehabilitation” in compliance with historic preservation guidelines prescribed by the National Park Service.

According to the letter of intent, the Diocese of Madison would retain ownership of the BOC land to be leased, as well as determination over the future use of the approximately 72-acre Bishop O’Connor Center.

The landmark building that would be redeveloped by Gorman would revert to diocesan control at the end of the 60-year lease period. In the interim, the diocese would relocate its administrative offices, and those of Catholic Charities and its family of other tenants, on a mutually convenient date before construction starts.

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Religious freedom on the Fourth of July

Dear Friends,
As I write this column, we are coming quickly upon the Fourth of July, when we as a nation celebrate our independence and freedom. It is this freedom which has provided tremendous room for our flourishing as a human race and as a nation, but it is a delicate freedom, built upon the presupposition that we as a nation will choose to exercise our freedom in a way that moves forward toward what is best.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Encontrar la belleza en el sacerdocio

Esta columna es la comunicación del Obispo con los fieles de la Diócesis de Madison. Cualquier circulación más amplia va más allá de la intención del Obispo.

Queridos amigos:

“El amor por Cristo nos obliga” (2 Cor 5:14)”, dice la segunda carta a los Corintios. Ese amor, que se ha manifestado en la persona de Cristo, es la cosa más hermosa que podría haber. Es hermosa porque es el amor de Dios. Él es amor y Él es la belleza misma.

Y durante este Año de la Fe hemos estado contemplando desde varias perspectivas la belleza del Señor, como una forma de invitar a la gente a encontrarse con Él de modo que cambie la vida a través de la Nueva Evangelización.

Luego de haber celebrado recientemente la ordenación de tres nuevos y maravillosos sacerdotes, me gustaría decir algunas cosas sobre la belleza del sacerdocio, que compartí con quienes estuvieron presentes esa gran noche. El amor que nos impele y su belleza son puestos de manifiesto de manera especial en el sacramento de las Órdenes Sagradas.

La belleza del rito de ordenación

El sacerdocio es hermoso porque Jesús recrea al sacerdote de una forma nueva de modo que el ser anterior muere. En la ordenación, el sacerdote se postra ante el altar. Está acostado allí como si muriera y se levantase con la resurrección, hacia la novedad de haber sido cambiado en lo más profundo de su alma a imagen de Cristo Sacerdote.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Bishops release revised end-of-life letter

MADISON — Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops have released the third edition of their pastoral letter on end-of-life health care decision-making and advance care planning, Now and at the Hour of Our Death.

The letter voices the bishops’ concern and compassion for those facing critical health care decisions, and shares a moral and ethical framework for making such decisions.

Popular document

“The conference issued the first edition of this pastoral statement in 2002. That edition and the second one issued in 2006 have proven to be our most frequently requested document,” explained Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) Executive Director John Huebscher.

“In the seven years since the second edition, we have seen even greater interest in the moral questions surrounding death and dying. The bishops are resolved to keep responding to that interest. Reissuing the document is an effective way to do that.”

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Focusing on death, life, and mercy
This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

“Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous: The Prince of Life, who died, reigns immortal.”

“Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!”

(Easter Sequence – Roman Missal, 1964 translation).

I choose those two lines to focus upon in this Easter Season, because they are exactly reflective of the themes that our Holy Father, Pope Francis struck during many of the early days of Easter. He has asked the question and raised the issue from Scripture, “why do you seek the living among the dead (Lk 24:5)?”

“Death and life have contended,” and life won out, so, the Holy Father asks, echoing the message of the angel, “why do you seek the living among the dead?”

A second point that the Holy Father has focused upon is reassuring us, once again, that no one with a good and open heart is outside the bounds of the mercy of Jesus Christ, won by His death on the Cross, and confirmed by His Resurrection.

And so, we’ve got two words, or groups of words: “death and life,” and “mercy,” on which we should meditate in this Easter season.

Where is mercy in the world?

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Christ died that there might be mercy. Let’s calmly look at our world today, and let’s look around for mercy.

 

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