This week, the Catholic Herald recognizes the Diocese of Madison’s 75th anniversary.
For those who keep track of these things, the 75th is the “diamond” anniversary.
Sorry, Diocese, I didn’t get you anything.
We people love celebrating milestone anniversaries: 25th, 50th, 100th, and so on.
75? Three-fourths of 100? Let’s party!
Before we fiesta, I want to give special thanks to my predecessor Mary C. Uhler. Her work this whole year on assembling and writing down the history of the diocese has been a blessing.
It not only made my job easier when it came to putting together the special 75th anniversary section found in this week’s paper, but her work is creating a solid written history of the diocese that I hope will be a resource as we move on to 100 years and beyond.
You can find her articles on Page 2 of the paper each week this year, and also on our website.
So, thank you, Mary.
A long time?
Let’s do the obligatory what was the world like in 1946 when the Diocese of Madison started.
Curly Lambeau was still coaching the Packers, but the NFL only had 10 teams. Vince Lombardi was still coaching high school, Bart Starr was 13, and Brett Favre’s parents were toddlers.
There were no Milwaukee Bucks and the NBA was just starting.
The only Milwaukee Brewers were a minor league team and the Boston Braves were two years away from winning a pennant and not even thinking about moving yet.
In other areas, radio was still tops, but network TV was going to start taking over the airwaves two years later.
Rock ‘n’ roll was a few years away from being a thing, but the seeds were being planted: Elvis was 11, Bill Haley was still playing country music, and John Lennon was only six.
Harry Truman was president, the first computer (all 27 tons of it) was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania, and the world met the United Nations, Tupperware, and the Cannes Film Festival for the first time.
As you can see, a lot has happened and changed in the last 75 years, but as the late Karen Carpenter sang and the great Ric Flair said, “We’ve only just begun [WOO!]”.
More to follow
In Church years, 75 is a small number.
While we can be proud of all that’s been done and accomplished in the past seven-and-a-half decades, just think about what’s to come.
It would be fun to speculate, but God only knows what’s next.
The success of the Go Make Disciples evangelization initiative will make this diocese stronger, more faith-filled, and ready to grow as more years pass us by.
Vocations are increasing every year and more families are learning how to pray together.
We’ve only just begun.
We can be proud of how we got here, but let’s also be excited for tomorrow.
If I’m still here for the 100th, I hope we’re talking about the incredible past 25 years of the diocese.
So let’s party now, and get to work tomorrow.