On the afternoon of February 27, close to 200 individuals, well representing the Diocese of Madison regionally, gathered at St. Dennis Parish in Madison, to pray with Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison in offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and then to gather with the opportunity for the bishop to consult with members of the faithful of the diocese.
Tag: synod
Looking ahead to the synod
Since the Second Vatican Council ended, gatherings of the world’s bishops, called synods, have occurred in Rome.
These meetings have always dealt with a particular ecclesial theme, such as Religious Life, youth, evangelization, marriage and family, the vocation, and mission of the laity.
What is ‘synodality’ and walking the synodal path?
It was a great privilege for me to participate in the Synod on Young People in the fall of 2018.
Reflections on ‘Dominus Iesus’
The primary aim of the Amazon Synod that is happening right now in Rome is, in the words of Pope Francis, to “identify new ways for the evangelization of that portion of the people of God, and especially the indigenous peoples.”1
This question of how to evangelize is very important, not only for the Amazon Region, but for the whole Church. How do we bring Jesus Christ to those who have never heard of him? And more specifically, how are we called to treat other cultures and other religions with the respect they deserve yet without compromising the saving truth of the Gospel?
New apologetics: youth synod intervention
Bishop Barron offered the following intervention at the Vatican during the 2018 Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment.
Jesus’ encounter with two erstwhile disciples on the road to Emmaus provides a beautiful template for the Church’s work of accompaniment across the ages.
Synod-2015 revisited
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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.
Answering our call to holiness
Dear Friends,
As I write this column, we are in the midst of two days of the Church year, which call us both to hope and rejoicing, and also to deep prayer and reflection upon the core reality of Christianity.
The Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All Souls are, for the Church, where the rubber meets the road.
It is the time when we, who make up the Church Militant — the Church still fighting and struggling in this life — recall the whole Church Triumphant and Church Suffering.
Issues beneath issues at synod 2015
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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?
What God has joined together, no man must separate
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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,
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.”
Bishop Morlino seeks input for next October’s Synod
By way of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, has asked every bishop of the United States to submit a report responding to the Lineamenta and its questions for the purpose of contributing to the “Working Document” of the Ordinary Synod, to be held October 4 to 25.
Bishops are specifically encouraged to gather the thoughts and responses of a wide range of people in their dioceses in drafting their own reports.
To that end, we’d first like to make people in the diocese aware of the Lineamenta and the bishop’s invitation for them to read, reflect upon, pray about, and respond to the document in writing.