We need Advent:

To appreciate God's gift

		Notes from the  Vicar General  Msgr. Paul J. Swain

With the unseasonably warm weather it is hard to believe we are only a few weeks away from Christmas.

With the uneasy economic and political climate it is hard to approach this celebration with the confidence of the past. More than ever we need the season of Advent to help us focus on the meaning of Christmas which endures all times and all difficulties.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A classic television program this time of year is A Charlie Brown Christmas, first shown over 30 years ago. It remains a delightful story which cautions us not to let pressures or commercialization steal the meaning of Christmas.

Initially the focus of the characters is on what they want for Christmas. Lucy, mulling her desires, decides that this year she wants real estate. Sally, Charlie Brown's sister, writes a letter to Santa Claus, detailing her long wish list. Finally she writes, "Make it easy on yourself, Santa, send money, preferably 10s and 20s."

Charlie Brown and Linus fight a lonely battle to keep their Christmas pageant focused on the real spirit of Christmas, the gift of God's only son.

Advent reminds us that we need to prepare for the coming of Christ, in history at Bethlehem, at the end of time in glory, and as we wait, for his coming into our hearts each day.

What might we put on our wish list? Surely we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, fear of the Lord. They are gifts money cannot buy but which guide and steady us.

What's on our wish list?

We might add patience and respect for others. God made us unique, with differing talents and challenges. We are called to respect all gifted by God with life. We might also list forgiveness, first for ourselves and then the willingness to share our gift of God's mercy with others.

In the TV show Charlie Brown buys a spindly little evergreen tree which is mocked by the others. It's too small, too ugly, too old fashioned. Yet once it is decorated it radiates a unique beauty that brings out the true spirit of the season.

As weak as we are, shrouded in the mercy of God who sent his Son that we might be saved, we can grow toward becoming the beautiful people God created us to be.

A man recalled when he was eight. Abandoned by his father, his mother had no money for a tree. She sent her three children out to collect discarded tree remnants and branches.

On the living room floor she glued, nailed, and taped together something resembling a tree. She cut colorful pictures out of old magazines and hung them with string along with a few old ornaments and six blue lights.

He noted that it could not have been pretty but that he could not remember seeing anything so beautiful. He wrote, "Only God can make a tree. I saw Him do it with Mama's hands."

That is the spirit of the season, a beautiful gift wrapped with sacrifice and adorned with love and hope, just like the gift of the Father we celebrate at Christmas.

Supermax:

Does it serve common good?

		Eye on the  Capitol  M. Colleen Wilson

The Supermax Correctional Institution in Boscobel continues to receive inmates and criticism about the way those inmates are treated.

The Supermax, which opened two years ago, is designed to take the most violent and difficult offenders and separate them from the general prison population. The goal is changing unacceptable and inappropriate behaviors through the use of severe behavior controls, including extreme isolation.

Only rarely will a convicted felon get sentenced to Supermax by a criminal court. As former Governor Tommy Thompson liked to say, inmates earn their stay at Supermax by violently acting out against staff or fellow inmates at the more traditional state correctional facilities, posing a significant escape threat, or participating in gang activity.

Mental health conditions

Or do they? A lawsuit filed on behalf of the prisoners housed in Supermax and pending in federal court led the judge assigned to the case to order Department of Corrections officials to remove five Supermax inmates who suffer from mental illness.

The court order further requires that inmates who use psychotropic drugs, have been treated for mental illness in the past, or have attempted suicide will receive independent mental health exams for purposes of determining if they, too, should be transferred.

Is the department housing inmates at Supermax for mental health conditions that need treatment, not exacerbation?

Questioning Supermax

Advocates and the press continue to question the incarceration of several other inmates housed at Supermax.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently revealed that about 21 percent of the inmates placed at Supermax are there to free segregation space in other institutions, not because they are the "real bad actors" for which the state built the facility.

Advocates fear that the Department of Corrections will shift inmates whose behavior may not warrant a stay in Supermax as a means of justifying the facility, built at a cost to taxpayers of $47.5 million.

Pressures from the pending lawsuit and advocates has led to department-imposed changes at Supermax, including prison sponsored television programming and clocks in all inmate cells, improved heating, and expanded use of face-to-face visits instead of videoconferenced visits for inmates.

Department officials continue to maintain that Supermax is positively affecting conditions in other correctional facilities in the state, not because inmates fear assignment to Supermax, but because inmates who have made life difficult for prisoners at the other facilities have been sent to Supermax.

Bishops' statement

In 1999, Wisconsin's bishops issued a statement on crime and punishment in Wisconsin, entitled Public Safety, the Common Good, and the Church. In that document, the bishops reminded the faithful of our state that we all have a responsibility to contribute to the common good. Therefore, we are expected to protect ourselves from wrongdoers, but in so doing, we have a responsibility to consider the needs of all, even offenders.

The bishops' reminder is critical as we think about Supermax -- how do we balance the need to protect offenders from other inmates who prey on them? Is severe isolation from family, friends, staff, even other inmates, a Catholic response to the reality of crime in Wisconsin, a Catholic response that acknowledges that even the most hardened criminal is eligible for God's grace?

For common good?

Even from the practical consideration of dollars and cents, we as Catholics need to consider how effectively our tax dollars are being spent to operate Supermax. Cost per prisoner is estimated to be $35,700 per year. If an inmate transitions out of Supermax and eventually returns to the community only to offend again, have our tax dollars been used to further the common good?

The Department of Corrections has recently taken steps to slightly modify the environment at Supermax. As Catholics we need to press public officials to define the common good in terms of its impact on all human beings, not just those we deem "deserving."

M. Colleen Wilson is associate director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.

Virgin Mary:

She has multiple ways of being present to us

		Common-day  Spirituality  Mary Rose  Remington

"Tell me what you know about the Virgin Mary."

My client's request sent me on a Bible quest for more information. Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't find when Mary was born, how many other children she had, or much about her family-of-origin. I wonder if we'd know more about the Mother of Jesus if women had contributed to the Bible.

I was able to find plenty of intriguing websites that described weeping statues and paintings plus numerous apparitions of Mary, which have increased over the years.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

One famous apparition -- Our Lady of Guadalupe -- happened in Mexico on Dec. 9, 1531. A poor Mexican Indian man, Juan Diego, was on his way to morning services at a nearby church when he heard heavenly music coming from Tepayac Hill, a former worship site for an Aztec Goddess.

When he climbed the hill, he saw a dark-skinned woman surrounded by light and music. She spoke to Juan in his native tongue and told him she wanted a temple built on the spot they were standing. She asked him to travel to Tenochtitlan and ask Bishop Zumarraga to erect a church. Juan Diego went to the city and described what he saw to the bishop. To Juan's dismay, Zumarraga wanted proof.

Several days later the woman reappeared to Juan as he rushed to find a priest for his dying uncle. She assured Juan there was no need for a priest, as his uncle's health had just been restored. Juan was directed to fill his tilma (a poncho-like cape made from cactus fibers) with the roses that had miraculously grown at her feet and take them to the bishop.

As Juan poured them out in front of the bishop and his advisors, an image of the Virgin appeared on his tilma. This was proof enough for the bishop; he agreed to build the church in Mary's honor.

When Juan made it back to town he met his uncle who was completely cured.

His uncle told Juan that he had met a young woman, surrounded by a soft light, who told him that she had just sent his nephew to Tenochtitlan with a picture of herself. She told his uncle: "Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe."

A miracle

Juan's tilma is currently on display at the Basilica de Guadalupe, inexplicably preserved after 400 years. The tilma has been examined with infrared photography and digital enhancement, but the method used to create the image is still unknown. Millions make a pilgrimage to Mexico City every year on Dec. 12, to pay homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is credited with converting nine million Aztecs to Catholicism.

Mary continues to provide us with a portal to her Son Jesus and compels us to keep praying. She comforts and guides us with her compassionate love. When I consult with clients and conduct healing touch sessions, I trust she is somehow present.

Undoubtedly Mary will continue to make her presence known through apparitions, weeping icons, and paintings -- whatever it takes to reach us.

Mother Mary, be with us now.

Mary Rose Remington, a member of St. Thomas Becket Parish in Eagan, Minn., is a writer, career coach, and speaker.