Tag: family

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George Weigel

Synod-2015 revisited

As I write, just before Thanksgiving, it’s been over a month since Synod-2015 finished its work.

Yet there is still no official translation of the synod’s Final Report into the major world languages from the original Italian (a language regularly used by eight-tenths of one percent of the world’s population).

That’s a shame because, in the main, the Relatio Finalis is an impressive, often-moving statement of the Church’s convictions about chastity, marriage, and the family: biblically rich, theologically serious, pastorally sensitive, and well-crafted to meet the challenge of the cultural tsunami responsible for the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, which has left a lot of unhappiness in its wake.

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Kevin Wondrash

Compassionate Friends Candle Lighting December 13

MADISON — The Compassionate Friends (TCF) Worldwide Candle Lighting, which unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon, will be held Sunday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m.

As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of all children who have died.

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Cathy Lins, Catholic Herald Correspondent

World Meeting of Families brings together over 17,000 people

Editor’s note: Cathy Lins and Marie Lins from the Diocese of Madison attended events surrounding the recent visit of Pope Francis to the United States. Marie Lins attended the entire World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

The World Meeting of Families (WMOF), held from September 22 to 25 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia, was the largest in history with over 17,000 participants and over 100 countries represented.

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George Weigel

Issues beneath issues at synod 2015

Editor’s note: George Weigel is in Rome reporting on the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family.

Since Pope Francis announced that two synods would examine the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family and work to devise more evangelically dynamic responses to that crisis, a lot of attention has focused on issues of Catholic discipline.

How does the Church determine that a marriage never existed and thus grant a decree of nullity? What is to be done about the sacramental situation of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics? How does the Church best prepare its sons and daughters for marriage?

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Cathy Lins, Catholic Herald Correspondent

Light of the World Retreat

WATERLOO — The volunteer leaders at Holy Family Parish in Waterloo will lead the Light of the World Retreat (LOTW) November 13 to 16.

People throughout the Diocese of Madison are invited to attend the weekend program. Ideally, people will come for the four days: Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday, and Monday evening.

The LOTW Evangelization Process promotes parish outreach to welcome back those who have left the Church, while inviting all those who seek a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Kevin Wondrash

Spiritual Warfare Series offered in Waterloo

WATERLOO — Fr. Jorge Miramontes, pastor of Holy Family Parish, is leading a Spiritual Warfare Series called, “Angels and Demons.” It is being held at the school cafeteria, 387 S. Monroe St., on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. The series began Sept. 29 and continues to Nov. 3.

The program is for anyone who wants to deepen their knowledge about angels and demons and understand how to engage in ongoing spiritual battle.

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Andy Galvin

Theme five: Creating the Future

Andy Galvin

To prepare for the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this September, the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Diocese of Madison is providing a monthly series on a particular theme on marriage and family. Each theme is a chapter in the preparatory catechesis developed for the event entitled Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive, available in paperback from www.osvparish.com or for free online at www.worldmeeting2015.org

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

What God has joined together, no man must separate

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.

Dear friends,

Marriage matters. Marriage matters on all levels. Marriage matters to the men and women joined together in it, to children, to families, to communities, to our nation, and to the Church. Marriage is foundational to the stability of humankind, to the health and welfare of nations, and to our future.

All of that can be stated without recourse to theology, Sacred Scripture, or to 2,000 years of Church teaching. The fact that marriage matters has been known by human beings since before Jesus Christ was born.

It’s been known since the very beginning, because it is inscribed on the hearts of rational man and woman. Not only can the natural reproductive function of human anatomy be clearly seen, but the natural benefits of a stable, fundamental unit of society, made up of father, mother, and child, can be immediately realized.

God’s plan for marriage

Beyond that, however, we as Christians believe that, in His love for humanity, God has revealed his plan for marriage time and time again. From the creation of Adam and Eve, through the giving of “the law” as recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, to the creation of a “new law,” in Jesus’ words to the Pharisees, to the elevation of Holy Matrimony to an inviolable Sacrament, God Himself has made clear in extraordinary ways that marriage matters.

Since the time that there was a Church (and before), marriage has been between one man and one woman, for one lifetime, with openness to children. It is for this reason (particularly in defense of the marriage bond) that St. John the Baptist, St. Thomas More, and so many others spoke truth to power at the expense of their own lives; it is for this reason (particularly in defense of the fruitfulness of marriage) that Blessed Pope Paul VI made clear, in the face of much dissent, that human procreation must not be stymied by artificial means of birth control; and it is for this reason in our own day (particularly in defense of the reality of marriage between one man and one woman), that the Church and her faithful have taken such abuse for saying (with love) that there is no such thing as “gay marriage.”

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Veronica Arntz

St. John Paul II: patron saint of the family

Veronica Arntz

St. John Paul II — the beloved pope and now saint — contributed a vast amount of knowledge and wisdom to the Church’s teachings on marriage and family.

Born on May 18, 1920, and ordained a priest in 1946, Karol Wojtyla’s adolescent years were marked by the reign and violence of the Third Reich.

Philosophy of personalism

Due largely to his devout Catholic parents, Wojtyla, rather than turning to violence himself, cultivated his mind through poetry and plays, eventually turning to philosophical inquiries, particularly in personalism.

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Fr. Donald Lange

Improve social, physical environment, says pope

To the editor:

I enjoyed the July 2 Catholic Herald articles about Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.

Since becoming pope, Francis has continued the concern for the environment that St. Francis of Assisi, St. John Paul II, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI shared.

He has connected the physical environment crisis with the social environment crisis. Improving the physical environment begins by improving the social environment.

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