Dear Friends,
The Apostolic and state visit of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, to the United Kingdom must be considered a very hopeful victory for Christ. This seems to be the general evaluation of those precious four days that many say have changed Great Britain.
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| 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,
“Back-to-school” and “Labor Day” mean for me, among other things, back to my column with as much regularity as I can muster for any given week. Thanks be to God, the summer was, for me, a serene time of priestly renewal. Of course, there are always problems in a diocese or in a parish that require attention from the bishop, and that attention is always ready to be given, but the grace of the Office of Bishop sustained me beautifully through a summer of serious priestly renewal, and I would like to trace the path of that renewal for you briefly in this first column after Labor Day.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino has announced new dates for the ordinations to the priesthood of Diocese of Madison seminarians Chad Droessler and John Putzer and transitional deacons Jorge Miramontes and Tim Renz.
With praise and thanksgiving to God, our Father, the Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, announces with joy the ordination to the priesthood of Jesus Christ of Rev. Mr. David Carrano and Rev. Mr. Gregory Ihm.
This week two men will be ordained as deacons and in June, two others will be ordained as new priests for the Diocese of Madison.
Having met all four of these fine men, I can tell people that we are indeed fortunate to have such fine men willing to serve our diocese as priests. They make us proud!
On Friday, May 28, Bishop Robert C. Morlino will ordain Jorge Miramontes and Timothy Renz to the Order of Deacon. They will be ordained as transitional deacons, meaning that they plan to be ordained to the priesthood in the following year. On June 25, Deacons David Carrano and Gregory Ihm will be ordained to the priesthood.
On Sunday, March 7, 55 seminarians of the Pontifical North American College in Rome were installed as acolytes during a celebration of the Eucharist. Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of the Archdiocese of Mobile, Ark., the principal celebrant of the liturgy, instituted the seminarians including Mark W. Miller of the Diocese of Madison, who is in his second year of theological studies.
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| 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. |
It was wonderful to witness and to hear of the strong turn-out of people at our Ash Wednesday Masses around the diocese. Such a turn-out is a hopeful sign that our people genuinely want to pursue the journey of holiness and conversion this Lent.
I share with you today three points that I made during my Mass on Ash Wednesday. The first point is regarding this, our Year for Priests, within the Church. I do think about the Year for Priests a lot, but I’m not sure that we’ve done everything that we can to help you think about it. I hope that you do think about it, though. My point is this: if it is the “Year for Priests,” and this “year” includes Lent, then this Lent is for priests.
On Sunday, Jan. 17, 51 seminarians of the Pontifical North American College were instituted to the Ministry of Lector during a celebration of the Eucharist. Scott M. Jablonski of the Diocese of Madison, who is in his first year of theological studies, was among those seminarians instituted.
Msgr. William DeBock, pastor emeritus, residing at the Bishop O’Connor Center, will celebrate the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood with a Mass and reception on Sunday, May 24, at 3 p.m. at St. James Parish, Madison. All brother priests and friends are invited to attend.
Fr. Anthony Swamy Aakula recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.
