FORT ATKINSON/PALMYRA — St. Joseph Parish in Fort Atkinson and St. Mary Parish in Palmyra will have a new weekend worship schedule effective the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, July 5 and 6.
The new schedule is:
This is the time of year when Catholics throughout the Diocese of Madison are hearing and reading about the Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA).
Members of parishes have received a letter and pledge form from Bishop Robert C. Morlino. In addition, there have been prayers and announcements about the ACA at Masses each weekend. There was an insert about the appeal distributed last weekend in parishes; it is also included in this week’s Catholic Herald. Next weekend, we will watch a video message from our bishop.
Why is this so important? The ACA funds the ministries and services benefitting every Catholic in the Diocese of Madison. It supports the work of diocesan offices and agencies in the 11 counties of our diocese and also the work of our Church beyond the diocese.
Perhaps the best way to talk about the ACA is to explain why I give to the appeal — and why I think you (other Catholics in our diocese) should, too.
MADISON — The Diocese of Madison’s Office of Worship will hold Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion Workshops at two locations in the coming weeks.
Many of our ancestors came to the United States to enjoy freedom of religion. They lived in countries where they were not able to worship freely and some may have been persecuted for their beliefs.
For many of the early settlers of our country, freedom of religion didn’t just mean being able to attend the church of their choice, for example, Catholics going to Mass on Sunday at a Catholic church.
It also meant being able to wear religious symbols such as crucifixes in public, praying at public gatherings, talking about one’s faith in public, sending children to Catholic schools, and receiving health care at Catholic hospitals.
Many Catholics started their lives in this country as farmers and workers in factories or other businesses. But eventually many of them became owners of farms and businesses. As owners, they wanted to put their Catholic teaching into action by providing just wages and good benefits to their employees.
The Catholic Church itself became an employer in its institutions. At first, priests and members of religious orders primarily worked for the Church. But increasingly, especially in the 20th Century, more lay people were hired by Church institutions, including schools, colleges, hospitals and other health care facilities, and social service agencies. Not all of those employees were Catholic, but they realized that they were working for the Church and would have to adhere to the Church’s policies and procedures.
To the editor:
Aside from the fact that weekly attendance is an obligation, we attend Mass to worship God and to participate in the Pascal mystery. We are not there to be entertained or to see what we can get out of it. We attend for what we put into it.
To the editor:
While I do enjoy music created by creative dead white Europeans, I also find that God has gifted us with many new and varied types of music for our time.
Nico Fassino writes that the Mass is not for “us” and I must agree with him.
BUT! I also know that the Mass is our most intimate experience with the living and active Christ. In the Mass not only do we worship God, but we find Him with us . . . speaking to us in the Gospel and homily, praying with and for us, teaching us, comforting us, forgiving us, feeding us, and blessing us.
Independence Day concluded the Fortnight for Freedom mandated by the U.S. bishops, a two-week period of reflection and prayer on the defense of religious liberty that began on the vigil of the liturgical memorial of St. Thomas More.
In 2012, we may be grateful that none of us faces the headsman’s axe, as More did in Tudor England. But neither should we be indifferent to, or flippant about, the 21st-century threats to religious liberty that surround us.
Thirty-some years ago, I spent a fair amount of time on religious freedom issues: which meant, in those simpler days, trying to pry Lithuanian priests and nuns out of Perm Camp 36 and other GULAG islands.
Had you told me in 1982 that one of my “clients,” the Jesuit Sigitas Tamkevicius, would be archbishop of Kaunas in a free Lithuania in 2012, I would have thought you a bit optimistic.
If you had also told me, back then, that there would eventually be serious religious freedom problems in the United States, I would have thought you a bit mad.
The diocesan Office of Worship, with the approval of Bishop Robert C. Morlino, has announced that parishes in the Diocese of Madison who wish to ease implementation of the new texts for the people may begin introducing the musical portions of the people’s parts of the Mass earlier than the general implementation date.
MADISON — Visitors to Wisconsin are often surprised and complimentary at how wonderful a place Wisconsin is to live. They take note of the strong sense of culture and history here, the natural beauty, and all that there is to do — both in winter and, especially, in summer.
