Bishops' Schedules: Schedule of Bishop William H. Bullock Friday, November 8 through Thursday, November 14, 2002 Attend Fall Meeting, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Saturday, November 16, 2002 9:00 a.m. -- Preside at Communal Reconciliation Service for Confirmation Candidates, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Madison 5:00 p.m. -- Preside and Preach at Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation, St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Madison Sunday, November 17, 2002 11:15 a.m. -- Preside and Preach at Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Madison 4:30 p.m. -- Preside and Preach at Celebration of the Eucharist, Diocesan High School Youth Rally, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:00 a.m. -- Attend St. Raphael Society Board Meeting, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Wednesday, November 20, 2002 9:30 a.m. -- Attend Corporate Board Meeting, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Thursday, November 21, 2002 3:00 p.m. -- Preside at Midday Prayer for Vocations, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Schedule of Bishop George O. Wirz Friday, November 8 through Thursday, November 14, 2002 Attend Fall Meeting, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Saturday, November 16, 2002 9:00 a.m. -- Participate at Communal Reconciliation Service for Confirmation Candidates, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Madison Sunday, November 17, 2002 12:00 p.m. -- Preside and Preach at Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation, St. John Vianney Parish, Janesville Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:00 a.m. -- Attend St. Raphael Society Board Meeting, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Wednesday, November 20, 2002 9:30 a.m. -- Attend Corporate Board Meeting, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Thursday, November 21, 2002 3:00 p.m. -- Attend Midday Prayer for Vocations, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison

Massive doses of hope

		The Bishop: A Herald of Faith Bishop William H. Bullock

(Following is the text of Bishop Bullock's address given on the occasion of the Catholic Charities Awards Dinner, Oct. 29, 2002, at the Marriott West Hotel, Middleton.)

Thank you Mr. Phil Galassie, President of Catholic Charities. In you, Phil, rests hope for our full entry into the Third Millennium.

"We are pulled toward God - showing forth in all we do our love for people, a deep respect for their dignity."

In speaking with someone recently about what the world needed, she said: "Bishop, the world needs massive doses of hope." I agree! You, Phil, have shown a genuine "openness" to that reality.

Rapid and radical change

In contemporary society we are experiencing another paradigm shift because of the rapid and radical changes our technological world has brought about. But also the global village population brings new challenges and opportunities.

Our world population shows us to be two-thirds Asian. In our Catholic Church, of one billion Catholics, 70 percent are from Third and Fourth World countries.

A new beginning

In our country in the Third Millennium and especially since Sept. 11, 2001, markets have plummeted, poverty prevails, and immigrants have shifted. In place of the European immigrant who came to our American shore at the beginning of the 1900s, now Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans constitute the majority.

We are no longer an Anglo Church in the U.S. of our 62 million Catholics, for nearly half are Hispanic. We have a new millennium, a new world, a new beginning.

How do we, in what is called "the private sector," address and support these demands, these challenges, these problems? Put more positively, how do we face these opportunities and thus provide realistically for their integration into an American and Catholic Dream? The answer is not an easy one.

Pledge to make it better

That is in part why we are here tonight, to experience what is good about what we do and pledge to make it better, to pick that which has gotten better and make it the best. Not to impress by a Madison Avenue style, but to be faithful to Christ.

While success stories abound of how immigrants of years ago became millionaires, and while the world of medicine and technology dazzles the mind with its findings - we are God's people - we believe in something more and beyond our earthly home.

If the grave is the end, our final destiny, then let's go get all the goodies of the world and enjoy them all - that's the world's philosophy. If the grave is not the end and there is an everlasting life for us, a life without end, without war, poverty, sickness, hate, violence, and revenge - then we had better look to that reality, live it deeply, and be committed to the people who will bring God's Kingdom to full reality.

Do it the way the Lord planned

As the old Irishman said: If there's a heaven and there's a hell - then, life is too short and eternity is too long to do it any other way than the way the Lord planned it. Catholic Charities can and does move us forward in marked ways.

You have read and heard me speak often about "Catholic Identity" in my nine years as your Bishop. That term is a calling card - it's a measuring stick, an absolute in a society that worships relativism. In our society someone said: "In America, our U.S.A., we permit everything and forgive nothing."

Human rights

As we sit on the eve, if not precipice, of an all-out war against Iraq and imagine the horror of that war, as we experience "Enron" in various forms, as we battle to correct sexual abuse of minors and children by priests, bishops, and others in our Church, we don't have to linger long or too hard to remember that agencies of government - and from the private sector of our society - exist to help people attain and maintain their human rights.

It is the preservation and promotion of these human rights that will bring about sanity among all people in the world.

But we as Church impact society even more significantly than bringing people back to a sober life free from alcohol and drugs. We bring along with that a gift of God's love through the personnel of Catholic Charities.

Not only do we work in partnership with local, state, and federal government, we work with other non-governmental agencies - but also we work to witness to Christ, our God and our Savior, who reassures both the caregiver and the recipient of aid and rehabilitation, that they indeed are human beings with rights, that they are loved by God and will someday, in God's love, be brought to the Kingdom of God won for us by Jesus Christ.

Those who truly believe are able to bring a type of care that goes beyond the here and now to the here and hereafter.

Pulled toward God

For this reason, which is our love of Christ and salvation in Him, we must never let rust destroy nor moth consume the essentials of our Catholic Identity, for it goes to the core of our being, it goes to the center of our spiritual gravity. We are pulled toward God and proud to be a truly Catholic Charities - showing forth in all we do - our love for people, a deep respect for their dignity, their human rights from womb and birth to natural death.

As Mother Teresa says, "We will be glad we had the poor, indigent, and needy to care for; because of them, we will make it to the Kingdom of God."

Catholic Charities is in a new millennium with the rest of the world and in the Church. Under the leadership of Brian Cain, a new focus can deepen our commitment. Under the leadership of Monsignor Paul Swain, our Vicar General and the Chair of the Catholic Identity Committee, their review and focus will keep us all centered in Christ who is Savior and God. I thank them both.

You have just heard from a 75-year-old fellow (me, myself, and I). Our honorees for the evening have been closely associated with Edgewood Campus School, High School, and College. "Edgewood" as we know began 75 years ago. This makes us birthday pals.

From the heart of the Church

It is my prayer for them and all recipients of these service awards tonight that their Catholic Identity, born out of the heart of the Church under Blessed and Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, shine forth in the new millennium in a new adventure of fidelity.

As all of us who grow older and feel some fastidiousness about our attempts to live deeply in the Church and claim a measure of wisdom - may Edgewood as it experiences its diamond jubilee, sparkle on all levels bearing clear, bold, and Christ-centered witness in faithfulness to Christ and His Church. May they do this today, yesterday, and forever.

My time is up. I thank you for yours.

Bishop's Letter

Dear Friends in Christ:

The annual combined special collection for the Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) and Catholic Communications will be taken on November 16 and 17. Both national and diocesan programs are supported by this collection.

It is startling to learn that in the United States 34 million people live in poverty, including one in six children. The CCHD of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops offers substantive hope that poverty need not be permanent by funding practical programs which directly assist those in need. CCHD supports local groups to create jobs, improve neighborhoods, train adults for employment, keep schools safe, and prepare future leaders.

Funds raised for Catholic Communications help assure that the Church has the resources nationally and locally to take advantage of all possible means, including television, radio, print, and the Internet, to present in understanding ways Catholic social and other teaching. It also allows the ability to respond to misstatements about the Church and its teachings when necessary. We have so much positive news to present. With sufficient resources we can do so.

Please continue your generous ways and support these two important programs.

Grace, Mercy, and Peace,

Most Reverend William H. Bullock
Bishop of Madison