SINSINAWA — The public is invited to join the Sinsinawa Mound community in prayer for peace in our world and in our hearts at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22.
The service is being held in conjunction with the International Day of Peace established by a United Nations resolution in 1981. This year’s International Day of Peace theme recognizes the 30th United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace.
MCFARLAND — Christ the King Parish in McFarland is hosting Rosary Rallies for the intention of religious liberty in our nation and the world on Tuesdays through Oct. 28.
Fr. Steve Smith, pastor, led the Kick-Off Rally on July 15 at the outdoor Marian Garden on the church grounds, 5306 Main St.
DODGEVILLE — Amazing, unbelievable, impressive, and remarkable are all adjectives that describe the feelings from the students when they heard their team called for second place at the Odyssey of the Mind world finals.
St. Joseph School sent two teams to world competition recently in Ames, Iowa, at Iowa State University. There they competed against teams from all over the world.
Many teams had gone through multiple eliminations at sectional, regional, and divisional competitions, in order to get to world competition, so the competition was tough.
MARSHALL/WATERLOO — Holy Family Parish in Waterloo and Marshall held a Light of the World (LOTW) Retreat for its members from May 16 to 19.
This is the first in a series of retreats that will be held. The LOTW Evangelization Process promotes parish outreach to welcome back those who have strayed from the Church while inviting all those who seek a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Beyond a weekend retreat, Light of the World supports participants’ long-term faith journey, with small group support, continuing spiritual education, and engagement as disciples.
DODGEVILLE — For the second year in a row, students at St. Joseph School in Dodgeville will be taking some of their skills and talents to a worldwide stage.
Two teams from the school are advancing to the Odyssey of the Mind world finals set to take place at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, from May 28 to May 31.
More than 800 teams from around the world will compete in the 35th annual competition which, according to its website, “emphasizes creativity and teamwork and has grown into the largest international creative problem-solving competition worldwide.”
MADISON — On Friday, April 11, 13-year-old Bridget Thompson and her family will be leaving for London as the seventh grader from St. Dennis School in Madison gets ready to take part in the World Championships of Irish Dance.
Bridget earned her spot in the championships at the 2013 Mid-America Oireachtas (pronounced “oh-rock-toose”) competition in Grand Rapids, Mich., this past December. She placed 15th out of more than 130 girls.
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We turn on our faucets and out comes water — clean, refreshing, plentiful, life-sustaining water. But we rarely give it a thought.
We just tend to take for granted that it will always be there. We even forget to thank God — the well-spring of life.
But for 768 million fellow human beings, clean plentiful water is a distant dream, according to the United Nations. For them, the water they drink, cook with, and bath in, is polluted and often disease-ridden, and must be carried long distances in many cases.
According to figures released by the United Nations Children‘s Fund in 2013, lack of access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is a leading cause of death from diarrhea in children under five, amounting to approximately 1,400 children dying each day.MADISON — For the first 11 months of 2014, Gina Neuville is going on a mission trip with a schedule resembling the closing credits to Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
She’ll go to Zambia, Malawi, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, China, Nepal, Cambodia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Vietnam “in no particular order,” she said.
Her trip to 11 countries in 11 months is part of the World Race, which has the purpose, according to its website, “to serve ‘the least of these’ while amongst real and raw community.”
In his message for World Food Day, which was observed on October 16, Pope Francis said that “it is a scandal that there is still hunger and malnutrition in the world.”
The Holy Father emphasized, “It is not just a question of responding to immediate emergencies, but of addressing together, in all areas, a problem that challenges our personal and social conscience, to achieve a just and lasting solution.”
In the United States, there are increasing numbers of hungry people. Many of them rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. As of November 1, the benefits to individuals and families were cut for the first time since 1964. That’s because an increase in food aid approved in 2009 expired, and Congress hasn’t been able to pass a new farm bill for over a year (the farm bill includes provisions to fund food assistance programs in our country).
After a long, 25-hour adventure of traveling that got us to Rio de Janeiro for the beginning of World Youth Day, the Madison pilgrims, having joined with our new friends from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, were finally en route to the church we would be able to call home for the week.
On the bus, we travelled across the entire city all the way to a far west suburb, Recreio dos Bandeirantes. As we passed through famous areas of Rio, Copacabana, and Ipanema, I craned my neck to try to find the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering above the city, welcoming us to town.
