Tag: father

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Kevin Wondrash

A thankful attitude helps us appreciate our blessings

Sometimes we appreciate more fully what we have when we see what others don’t have; yet, they are more thankful than us who have much more.

Matt Hasselbeck learned this the hard way. He was a Boston College sophomore who was going nowhere in football. Worse yet, he got in his coaches’ doghouse when he volunteered for the missions in Jamaica during spring break.

Gratitude amidst poverty

When Matt saw the poverty in the missions, he experienced cultural shock. At a prayer meeting, he heard someone enthusiastically thank God for his blessings. The person was George McVee, a leper who was so disfigured that Matt avoided him. He wondered what George had to be thankful for. He had no money, nose, feet, or hands; yet, he was thankful. His gratitude helped Matt to appreciate his cornucopia of blessings.

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Kevin Wondrash

Reduction to a ‘singleton’ baby

In my capacity as theologian, teacher, and culture commentator, I’ve been reading articles on ethical matters for years and have grown relatively inured to the expression of even the most outrageous points of view.

But a few years ago, I came across a piece that was so shocking that I was compelled, as I read it, to put the magazine down several times and just shake my head in disbelief.

‘Reducing’ a pregnancy

It was an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine called “The Two Minus One Pregnancy,” dealing with the phenomenon of “reducing” (love the Orwellian language) a pregnancy from two children to one.

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On
Fr. Robert Barron

Have patience for ‘sausage-making’ synod

The midterm report on the deliberations of the Synod on the Family has appeared, and there is a fair amount of hysteria all around.

John Thavis, a veteran Vatican reporter who should know better, has declared this statement “an earthquake, the big one that hit after months of smaller tremors.”

Certain commentators on the right have been wringing their hands and bewailing a deep betrayal of the Church’s teaching. One even opined that this report is the “silliest document ever issued by the Catholic Church,” and some have said that the interim document flaunts the teaching of St. John Paul II.

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On
Joseph Fogerty

God is a family of three eternal persons in Trinity

To the editor:

In his article in the October 16 issue, Father Barron writes that unbelieving scientists don’t seem to know what we mean by “God.” He states that a universe of contingent entities requires a non-contingent source.

Some unbelievers assert that our universe and others derived from space time fluctuations that always existed. This debate, which has been raging for several years, is partly our fault because we leave the impression that God is a solitary individual who arbitrarily created the universe from nothing.

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Kevin Wondrash

Teens attend Steubenville youth conference

ST. PAUL, Minn. — More then 20 high school students from St. Clement Parish in Lancaster recently attended the Steubenville North Youth Conference in St. Paul, Minn.

They were accompanied by students from Queen of All Saints Parish in Fennimore and St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Mt. Horeb at the conference that had a grand total of 2,000 high schoolers from all over the Midwest.

Nine adults from Lancaster went along as chaperones as well as Fr. John Sasse, pastor of St. Clement, and Fr. Greg Ihm, vocations director for the Diocese of Madison.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

St. Paul’s celebrates Masses for Facebook followers

MADISON — On Monday, July 21, the St. Paul University Catholic Center Facebook page was sitting with a strong following of 900 followers.

After the page’s administrator had a short conversation with Fr. Mark Miller — the recently arrived new director of student ministries at St. Paul’s — the following was posted on the page:

“If we reach 1,000 Facebook page ‘likes’ by the end of the week, Fr. Mark will say a Mass for just our Facebook followers:) Please click on our page and on the left hand side, click to invite your friends to like our page!”

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Mazzuchelli memorial Mass and dinner planned

BENTON — The annual Venerable Fr. Samuel Mazzuchelli memorial Mass and dinner will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 24, at St. Patrick Church in Benton.

The public is invited to attend the day’s events sponsored by the Father Mazzuchelli Assembly 1202 Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, Lancaster.

Prior to the Mass, the public is invited to visit St. Augustine Church, New Diggings. Tours will be given from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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