MADISON — Married couples, the Diocese of Madison needs your help.
If you want to share the blessings of your marriage or are looking for a way to help strengthen the marriages of couples just starting out, think about and pray about joining the Diocese of Madison Marriage Preparation Team.
MADISON — Catholic Charities Madison is partnering with Bethel Lutheran Church to operate the Warming Center for the Homeless in downtown Madison this winter.
The center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Catholic Charities has committed to working at the center on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, said Derrick L. Smith, director of strategic planning and special projects for Catholic Charities. Bethel Lutheran is covering Tuesdays and Thursdays.
MADISON — For more than 25 years, the Madison Diocesan Choir has celebrated the birth of Christ with its Festival of Lessons and Carols, and the worship service on Sunday, Dec. 18, at Holy Name Heights promises to be a celebration like no other.
Unlike earlier concerts featuring a professional brass ensemble, string section, acclaimed vocalists, or soloists on harp or horn, this event offers the angelic voices of youth, featuring the Cardinal Cantors of St. Maria Goretti Catholic School in Madison as special musical guests.
MADISON — When the Diocese of Madison shut the Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC) down in 2009 due to tough economic times, Elia Armacanqui was among the first to rally around the center and advocate for its re-opening.
As a community advocate, Peruvian, and long-time friend and supporter of the CMC, Armacanqui saw this as a wake-up call for herself and fellow Latinos.
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| Msgr. Larry Bakke, right, continues as director of the newly named Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities. The Apostolate’s new associate director is Deacon Jim Hoegemeier, left, and the new administrative assistant is Kellie Raddell. (Catholic Herald photo/Pam Payne) |
MADISON — The newly named Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities in the Diocese of Madison builds on the vision of its first director while expanding its outreach to include more fully persons with disabilities in the life of the Church in the diocese.
Msgr. Larry Bakke, the current director, announced the new name and two new staff members on the weekly television Mass broadcast on Sunday, Nov. 12, on WISC-TV.
He noted that the former Apostolate to the Handicapped and the TV Mass began in 1967 under the direction of the late Msgr. Thomas Campion, who died six years ago in November of 2010.
“We remember him with great love,” said Monsignor Bakke, saying Monsignor Campion emphasized that “all of you matter; we are all God’s children.”
Monsignor Bakke was appointed director of the Apostolate in 2011, while also serving as pastor of St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Monroe and Brodhead, a parish with a school and large staff.
While Monsignor Bakke will remain in Monroe, the office of the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities has been moved to the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center at Holy Name Heights in Madison. A full-time associate director and administrative assistant have been hired to work in the Madison office.
MADISON — Sunday, Nov. 13, dawned warm and clear — a perfect day to welcome over 130 pilgrims who came to celebrate the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy at the Schoenstatt Heights Retreat Center.
The retreat center is located on Madison’s east side overlooking the State Capitol. As the time approached for Mass in the Family Room, pilgrims were streaming in to take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
MADISON — It started with Chef Bishop Robert C. Morlino at the grill.
On the feast of St. Ambrose in December of 2007, Madison’s startup Catholic classical school, St. Ambrose Academy, welcomed 200 guests to the cozy social hall of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish for its first benefit dinner.
The red-aproned bishop led the student kitchen crew in cooking his very own recipes for roasted asparagus, garlic-and-rosemary potatoes, and chicken saltimbocca over a snowy grill in honor of the Italian bishop, St. Ambrose of Milan.
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| A Holy Door is located at St. Patrick Church, 404 E. Main St., Madison. Another Holy Door is located at Holy Redeemer Church, 120 W. Johnson St., Madison. Both churches are part of the Cathedral Parish. For more information on Mass and Confession schedule, go to www.isthmuscatholic.org A Holy Door is also found at the Schoenstatt Founder Shrine, 5901 Cottage Grove Rd. in Madison, which is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
MADISON — Led by our Holy Father, Pope Francis, Catholics around the world have had a great opportunity to make contemplating and celebrating the Mercy of God a daily part of our lives through our observance of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Here in the Diocese of Madison, we adopted the theme, “Contemplating the Face of God’s Mercy.”
Many of us may read this and wonder, “What does this mean for me and what does this mean for my church/our diocese?”
These are good questions to be asking, especially as we consider how to continue to respond to God’s mercy once the Jubilee Year concludes on November 20.
We should keep asking ourselves those questions, and now is the perfect time to reflect on our own, as well as our collective, participation in this Jubilee Year.
Whether alone, with our families, or with the larger community, we always start every faithful effort with sincere prayer — through study, meditation, and more formal worship — especially in placing ourselves in our Lord’s very presence at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in Eucharistic Adoration.
Sincere and humble contemplation upon the face of God’s mercy will always lead us to the continual conversion we each need, and this conversion leads us to seek God’s mercy eagerly through the Sacrament of Penance and through living out the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy more frequently and more perfectly.
MADISON — Parishes and leaders in the Diocese of Madison recently got a chance to assess how they are living out the New Evangelization.
During the first week in November, Deacon Ralph Poyo spoke on this very topic.
Deacon Poyo runs New Evangelization Ministries, an Ohio-based ministry in which he travels the country and inspires the lay faithful, clergy, parishes, and dioceses through parish missions, retreats, and trainings leading them to answer the call to the New Evangelization.
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| The Schoenstatt Founder Shrine in Madison has one of three Doors of Mercy in the Diocese of Madison during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, which continues until November 20. (Photo (c) by Robert J. Arntz) |
MADISON — It has been a busy year at the Schoenstatt Founder Shrine in Madison, primarily because the shrine was designated as a Door of Mercy during the Church’s Jubilee Year of Mercy.
During the Year of Mercy, the Diocese of Madison designated three Holy Doors. The other two sites are at the Cathedral Parish: St. Patrick Church and Holy Redeemer Church in Madison.
The doors provide a place of pilgrimage and they bear with them a plenary indulgence granted by Pope Francis.
The possibility for an indulgence comes under the usual conditions: a person must be in the state of grace, make a sacramental Confession, receive the Holy Eucharist, pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, and have the interior disposition of being detached from sin, including venial sin.
People have until November 20 to take advantage of this opportunity to pass through a Door of Mercy.
According to Sr. M. Catherine Ditto, Schoenstatt Movement coordinator in the Diocese of Madison, “It has been a busy year at our shrine. About 550 people each month have visited the shrine from different parishes, schools, and organizations.”
