News Briefs: Retreat for priests MADISON -- A fall retreat for priests, sponsored by the Diocese of Madison's Office of Continuing Education of Priests, will be held from 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, through 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8. The retreat will be held at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center here. The retreat director will be Fr. Eugene Hensell, whose theme is "The Parable of the Priesthood as Reflected in the Parables of Jesus." Service to National Advisory Council MADISON -- Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), sent a letter to John F. Rogan recently thanking him for his years of service as a member of the U.S. Bishops' National Advisory Council (NAC). Rogan, a member of St. Bernard Parish in Middleton, represented the Diocese of Madison and Region VII on NAC from 1997 to 2001. Exploring Islam, Christianity MADISON -- An adult formation lecture series on "Exploring Islam and Christianity: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow" by Fr. Benjamin Russell will be held at Blessed Sacrament Parish. All lectures will be presented in Room 21 in the Blessed Sacrament School basement next to the Friary. The same lecture is given on Tuesday and Sunday to accommodate a wider audience. The series begins with "The Islamic Faith, part 1" on Sunday, Oct. 28, 10:15 a.m., and Tuesday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m., and continues through April 16.

Priests gather:

WISCONSIN DELLS -- The largest number of priests in the past 21 years gathered Oct. 7-10 at Chula Vista Conference Center here for the annual Diocese of Madison's Presbyteral Assembly.

The number of priests in the diocese has increased with eight ordinations over the past two years, noted Bishop William H. Bullock. He commented that there is renewed interest in being together, learning together, and formulating ways to bind up the nation's wounds.

Msgr. James Uppena, left, and Fr. David W. Timmerman (Fr. Felix Oehrlein photo)

"I believe we have had many a good assembly, but the seriousness of our challenges since Sept. 11 has awakened in us a new search for meaning of how we can help people live the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a truly redeeming way," said Bullock.

The keynote speaker of this year's assembly was Fr. Paul J. Cioffi, director of the Institute for Pastoral Renewal, Inc. in Washington, D.C., and staff member of the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the North American College in Rome. He addressed the role of the priest in holiness of life, liturgy, and preaching.

Bullock said Cioffi helped the priests to "get underneath what we are really doing in preaching, presiding, and celebrating the great signs of our redemption."

Cioffi truly shared his faith, simply saying that living in faith and love with Jesus Christ brings healing, strength, and salvation to those we serve and to ourselves.

"Jesus gathered his disciples often to teach them, to be with them, to pray with them and tell them of his dreams for the kingdom," said Bullock. "I think that is what we did -- in joy, laughter, seriousness, and with deep prayer we kept saying in different ways, 'God gave me the gift of priesthood and I want to live it fully and deeply in faith and love.'"

MADISON -- In the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies, a faltering economy is taking its toll on food pantries, shelters, and service centers in the Diocese of Madison.

At the St. Vincent de Paul service center on Madison's east side, the city's largest, director Alice Seelow said the number of families served a day has jumped from 25 to 30 a day to 50 a day. The demand started to climb before the terrorist attacks, said Seelow.

"Generally the demand goes up during this time of year, but never this high," she said. "This is a steady increase."

The service center, which has been open 11 years, offers not only food, but clothing, furniture, and other services. Much of the food is provided by the Community Action Coalition and food drives sponsored by area churches, such as St. Bernard Parish, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, and St. Dennis Parish in Madison.

Seelow said she has been hearing that there have been a lot of layoffs.

"I think the layoffs will get worse and worse," she said, pointing out that if she hears of jobs, she tries to refer people to them.

In search of jobs

At Madison's Centro Guadalupano, an agency of the Diocese of Madison that ministers to the Hispanic community, the effects of the economy are resulting in high numbers of people coming to the center in search of jobs.

"We've had hundreds of layoffs in factories," said Romilia Schlueter, pastoral minister at Centro Guadalupano. "Just recently a factory in town let go 250 people, and most were Hispanics. Most are looking for jobs and food and clothes at Centro.

"We are in a total overwhelming time," she said. "Our clientele has increased through the roof."

Schlueter said they are dealing with many situations at Centro Guadalupano as a result of the economy. For example, there are currently two elderly women who are homeless, and there are two young men who have no place to go and must sleep in their car. Giving them blankets was the only thing that could be done for them.

"It's going to get harder and harder," said Schlueter.

Homelessness

Mayor Susan Bauman met Oct. 4 with developers, bankers, and officials from surrounding communities throughout Dane County to discuss affordable housing in Madison.

"I hope that we leave this meeting with definite action items that will improve all of our efforts to create more affordable housing," said Bauman.

"The city is preparing for whatever will happen," said Schlueter. "The homelessness is going to increase because more people are going to lose their apartments."

To help

Centro Guadalupano is setting up an emergency food pantry in the basement of the Holy Re-deemer school building on Johnson St. Donations of food and winter clothes (including winter jackets and blankets) will be accepted. People may bring donations to the side door in the basement on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. or they may call Centro Guadalupano at 608-255-8471.

To donate donate clothes, food, or furniture to the St. Vincent de Paul service center at 1301 Williamson St., people may call 608-257-0919.

MADISON -- In testimony provided to the Assembly Committee on Health Oct. 9, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) offered support for Assembly Bill 457, which limits the ability of health care facilities to impose mandatory overtime hours.

Under current law, with certain exceptions, employers must pay hourly employees "time and a half" for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a given work week. However, in general, current law does not prohibit an employer from requiring an employee to work in excess of 40 hours per week.

The employer's ability to "mandate" overtime has come under recent scrutiny in the health care field where concerns regarding staffing levels have led some health care facilities to require employees to work longer hours.

Limiting overtime

Assembly Bill 457 would prohibit a health care facility from requiring a health care worker to work more than 40 hours, unless the health care worker consents to the additional hours, or the facility is facing an unforeseeable emergency. In addition, a health care facility would be prohibited from discharging or discriminating against an employee for refusing to work overtime.

In written testimony to the committee, the WCC noted that through over a century of Catholic social teaching, the church has established the primary principle regarding work: work derives its dignity from the inherent human dignity of those who perform it. In quoting the Wisconsin bishops' Labor Day statement, the WCC noted, "(a)ll people . . . are entitled by the fact of their humanity to work and to humane working conditions."

Humane conditions

The WCC upheld that the inherent right to humane working conditions extends to all workers, including those in professions critical to health and public safety.

The fact that the role of health care workers is a critical one does not justify subjecting them to working conditions that potentially undermine their personal safety and well being. AB 457 protects health care workers while providing protections for patients to insure that their care is not compromised.

Government role

John Huebscher, WCC executive director, noted that the church, which operates a wide range of health care facilities, "recognizes that, ideally, concerns regarding conditions of employment should be dealt with collaboratively between employers and employees. However, there is often an appropriate role for government to play in the establishment of just working conditions throughout our society.

"If work is to affirm human dignity then it must respect the need for reasonable and reliable working hours."