The Diocese of Madison issued the following statement on October 4:
Earlier today, Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford released her decision that the St. Raphael Cathedral site does not meet religious exemption qualifications — ruling in favor of the City of Madison and leaving the Cathedral Parish having paid nearly $100,000 per year in taxes since 2012.
Advocating for the Catholic Conference requires us to articulate the principles of Catholic social teaching in what a lawyer-friend of mine likes to call the “jury English” of everyday conversation.
Relating the Principle of Solidarity to current policy issues is one example of this.
The Principle of Solidarity flows from the truth that human beings created in the image of a Triune God are social by nature. As a result, “we are all in this together.”
To the editor:
In his recent 1,093-page budget, Governor Scott Walker has a provision that says certain taxpayers who have NOT paid their taxes for years — if the state knew of their underpayment but took no action — do NOT have to pay back these taxes.
In other words, the 61 new Department of Revenue employees who might discover these cheaters can take no action.
To the editor:
Back in the February 24, 2011, issue of the Catholic Herald, you had a guest columnist by the name of Constance Nielsen whose article, I felt, was very offensive to the public workers of Wisconsin. I remember quite clearly how I was feeling at that time because the media had been doing a fairly good job of promoting the misconception that public workers, especially teachers, had cushy jobs and were grossly overpaid.
Considering the difficulties that many of us are experiencing financially at this time, I found it deplorable that suddenly public workers, many of whom had been taking pay cuts or pay freezes for several years, suddenly were the “cause” of the budget deficit in Wisconsin.
To the editor:
Mr. Dagnon’s letter titled “America society has been redistributing wealth from the poor to the rich” (Catholic Herald, April 28) does not make any sense. The title debases his arguments and exposes him as a left wing ideologue. Poor people have no wealth to distribute — that is why they are called poor.
The only means the government has to generate funds to redistribute to the poor is through taxation and he fails to mention that the majority of taxes paid in this country are paid by the wealthy. In fact 51 percent of the U.S. population pays no federal taxes at all.
The springtime of the year is a season for debates over state budgets. Here, as in other places, state Catholic Conferences are part of the conversation.
And here, as in other states, the issues of concern to state Catholic Conferences don’t fit neatly into the conventional liberal-conservative categories.
In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) backs the governor’s recommendations regarding the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and his proposal to remove the mandate that health insurance policies include contraceptive services coverage, even when religious organizations do not want to purchase such coverage.
The WCC also supports budget provisions that limit or end funding for family planning programs, but also urges that those funds be redirected to programs that help pregnant women and their children.
The theme of the 2011 Catholic Schools Week celebrates the significant contributions that Catholic schools have made and continue to make to our parishes, our communities, and our nation.
While Catholic schools have long been known for their rigorous academics, their emphasis on self-discipline and their delivery of an education based on Gospel values, their positive effects have been proven to be much more numerous and far reaching.
