To the editor:
I just read in the very last paragraph of an article in the June 2 Wisconsin State Journal, “Walker ready to sign 20-week abortion bill,” this statistic for 2013: “89 of 6,500 abortions were performed after 20 weeks.” A mere 89 little people were killed after 20 weeks and the rest were younger. No big deal!
It’s sickening to see the apathy of a once-great nation in regard to standards of living. Who are we to judge which is more important, the life of the child or of the mother?
MADISON — Both the state Senate and Assembly passed a bill requiring ultrasounds for those considering an abortion.
According to the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) Capital Update report, the vote was 17-15 in favor in the Senate and 56-39 in favor in the Assembly for Senate Bill 206 (authored by Senator Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin), also known as “Sonya’s Law.”
Wisconsin Right to Life explained that Sonya, a Wisconsin mother of two children, learned that she was pregnant with her third child this past November. Sonya worried about how she could handle another child, emotionally and financially. She seriously thought about abortion.
MADISON — The Roman Catholic bishops of Wisconsin wrote to members of the Wisconsin Legislature, urging them to support Governor Scott Walker’s budget proposal, which would expand parental choice programs in the state and create the Special Needs Scholarship Program.
Noting the Church’s long-standing commitment to quality education, especially for needy or vulnerable children, the bishops explained why educational choice is so vital. “We back this effort out of a conviction that parents, as the primary educators of their children, must have the community’s support in selecting a form of education that best meets their child’s needs — academic, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and physical.”
On Thursday, April 5, Governor Walker signed about 50 bills into law, including three measures supported by the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC).
A year ago, the first thing the newly elected Legislature did was to adopt its scheduling resolution for the 2011-12 legislative session.
This resolution defined the floor periods during which the Legislature would meet to debate and pass legislation. In so doing, the legislators determined that they would convene for three “general business” floor periods between January 17 and March 15 in 2012, the last day of regular business for the year.
When they adopted that resolution, our lawmakers had no way of knowing that their session schedule would mesh with Wisconsin’s first ever recall of a governor and recalls of several state senators. But that is what appears will happen and it will affect what lawmaking takes place in these final floor periods.
The summer of the odd-numbered year is usually quiet on the political scene. By early July the Legislature has completed its work on the state budget and goes home until autumn. Other than an occasional special election, the campaign season is more than a year away.
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.
To the editor:
The column entitled, “‘Social justice’ is a complex concept” by Fr. Robert A. Sirico published in the April 14 issue of the Catholic Herald is confusing.
United States income has been redistributed from the poor and middle class to the wealthy for 30 years. The book Winner-Take-All Politics by Pierson and Hacker shows that in 2005 dollars, income of the 20 percent of American households earning the least rose from $14,900 in 1979 to $16,500 in 2005, or 10 percent. Average income rose from $42,900 to $52,100 or 21 percent.
Now that the governor has presented his state budget to the Legislature, fiscal issues and spending priorities will dominate the legislative agenda for the next several months.
First, the Joint Committee on Finance will hold hearings on the proposals. Then some of the standing committees may hold “subject matter” hearings on aspects of the budget related to their areas of expertise.
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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,
The Gospel of this past Sunday is addressed to those who are too worried about tomorrow. That’s why Jesus addresses them as “you of little faith.” If they were where He wanted them to be in their relation to His Father and Himself, He wouldn’t have said, “you of little faith.” Because of our human weakness and frailty, whatever faith we have, from God’s point of view, is certainly always “little,” but for Jesus to address it as such indicates a moment of challenge to growth.
One of the measures of our faith is: “how much do you and I worry about tomorrow?” Why is it not a good thing to make worrying about tomorrow my top priority? Certainly it is among our priorities, for obviously we have to be concerned with putting food on the table of our family, and clothing on their backs, and shelter over their heads. It is the sacred responsibility of parents to “worry” about such things. Jesus’ point is not offering some kind of recipe for a care-free life, where one’s responsibilities are just forgotten and put aside. But, our top priority can never be worrying about tomorrow, if we have met Jesus Christ risen from the dead.
The more worrying about tomorrow is our top priority, the more we need to place Jesus Christ ahead of that priority, so that He is our top priority.
