MADISON — Once again Hispanic leaders from our diocese come together to continue the five-year process of the V Encuentro.
Back in March, about 12 people of the team were going to attend a regional gathering in Mundelein Seminary in Illinois.
This event was focused on welcoming the participation of all the dioceses of Region VII (consisting of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin) to lead valuable discussion and helping Region VII establish strategies for different ministerial areas.
BELOIT — At a time when many activities and efforts have slowed to a crawl, fervent hands and minds are still at work on the stateline in Rock County.
Five area Catholic parishes – Our Lady of the Assumption, St. Thomas, and St. Jude in Beloit; St. Stephen in Clinton; and St. Peter in South Beloit, Ill. – have formed a dedicated planning committee to establish the Stateline Mission Outreach.
The service will provide a day center where those suffering from homelessness can do laundry, take a shower, and share a simple meal together with the volunteers.
The following article is the next installment in a series that will appear in the Catholic Herald to offer catechesis and formation concerning end of life decisions, dying, death, funerals, and burial of the dead from the Catholic perspective.
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Statement from the Diocese of Madison:
MADISON — As has been circulated in recent days, the five Wisconsin bishops jointly decided to lift the suspension of the Sunday Mass obligation in their respective dioceses this month. For the Diocese of Madison, this suspension will be lifted beginning on Sunday, September 27th.
As Bishop Hying wrote to the priests of the diocese, “We have been living with the obligation suspended for almost six months and we rightly chose to be cautious, concerned for the safety and health of our people, especially at the beginning of the pandemic.”
Since late May, diocesan guidelines, observing all state and local orders for safe reopening of our 134 churches have been in place throughout the 11-county Diocese of Madison. These measures have proven effective. Our churches were reopened for public worship with limited capacity, distancing, and great caution for the public health, without any known spread of COVID-19.
FORT ATKINSON — While headlines and social media chatter make many mentions of the Dane County order limiting most public and private education to virtual learning, along with the lawsuits in-progress to attempt to get that order overturned, many schools in the Diocese of Madison have opened their doors for in-person instruction this school year and have done so safely.
One example is St. Joseph School in Fort Atkinson, in Jefferson County, east of Dane County.
Its first day of school was on August 24.
Since June, the reopening committee met each week to follow the CDC and Jefferson County Health Department recommendations to make sure the school could open safely for students and staff.
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Last week, I met with Tom Nelson and a dedicated group of priests, social workers, and farmers who care deeply about the troubling crises facing our rural communities.
I listened as they spoke movingly about the fact that, in the last 10 years, 50 percent of family farms in Wisconsin have disappeared, milk prices are untenable, and no economic future exists for young people who would like to remain in farming.
COVID and its impact on the economy and the food supply chain has only exacerbated these challenges. Depression and suicide are on the rise in troubling numbers.MADISON — On the mission field this summer, wearing masks, and hearing Collatio talks over Zoom calls, Love Begins Here (LBH) Missionaries around the diocese entered deeper into the spirituality of their patroness St. Teresa of Calcutta and her mystical relationship with our Blessed Mother.
On Friday, Aug. 21, while some Catholic schools in Dane County were just a few days away from opening their doors to in-person classes for all students, Public Health of Dane County and Madison issued Emergency Order #9.
MADISON — Barring local county health departments issuing an order for closure, Catholic schools in the Diocese of Madison will return to in-person instruction this fall, but how that looks from school to school will vary.
“All of our schools are very different,” said Michael Lancaster, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Madison.
“We all have the same mission and academic standards, but we are in very different communities. There is no way we can do a one size fits all.”
Four men — newly ordained priests — have started living out their calls to the priesthood.
They are Fr. Michael Johnson, Fr. Tim Mergen, Fr. Vincent Racanelli, and Fr. Enan Zelinski.
