Bishops' Schedules: Bishop Robert C. Morlino Thursday, June 13, 2004 -- Saturday, June 20, 2004 Attend United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Meeting, Denver, CO Monday, June 21, 2004 6:00 p.m. -- Attend Dinner, 8th Annual Catholic Charities Golf Tournament, Nakoma Golf Club, Madison Tuesday, June 22, 2004 5:45 p.m. -- Attend Apostolate to the Handicapped Board Meeting, New Glarus Hotel, New Glarus Wednesday, June 23, 2004 9:30 a.m. -- Attend Wisconsin Catholic Conference Board Meeting, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Thursday, June 24, 2004 12:00 p.m. -- Attend Luncheon Meeting, Dane County Association of Evangelicals, Blackhawk Evangelical Free Church, Madison Bishop William H. Bullock, Bishop Emeritus Sunday, June 20, 2004 2:30 p.m. -- Attend 25th Anniversary Mass of Reverend Bernard E. Rott, St. Henry Parish, Watertown Wednesday, June 23, 2004 9:30 a.m. -- Attend Wisconsin Catholic Conference Board Meeting, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison Bishop George O. Wirz, Bishop Emeritus Monday, June 21, 2004 6:00 p.m. -- Attend Dinner, 8th Annual Catholic Charities Golf Tournament, Nakoma Golf Club, Madison Tuesday, June 22, 2004 5:45 p.m. -- Attend Apostolate to the Handicapped Board Meeting, New Glarus Hotel, New Glarus Wednesday, June 23, 2004 9:30 a.m. -- Attend Wisconsin Catholic Conference Board Meeting, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison

Pope John Paul II meets with Bishop Robert C. Morlino (next to pope) and Bishop George O. Wirz, left, at the Vatican for their recent Ad Limina Visit. (Fotografia Felici photo)

		Under the Gospel Book + Bishop Robert C. Morlino

Dear Friends,

As I prepare this particular column, it is Saturday, May 29th, the Vigil of the Pentecost Feast and I am sitting in my room at the North American College listening to the beautiful singing in preparation for the Vespers Service at St. Peter's Square this afternoon with the Holy Father.

Our own pilgrim group will be in attendance at the Holy Father's Vespers Service and I very much look forward to seeing them afterward for dinner. My afternoon schedule did not allow me enough time to get properly dressed and to arrive at the Vespers respectably early which is the general expectation. It will be a wonderful experience for our pilgrims.

Related items: • News article and photos on Ad Limina Pilgrimage • Editorial

I must say the weather during these days of our official visit to the Holy Father, to the Vatican, to the tombs of St. Peter and Paul has been consistently the best weather that I have ever experienced in the Eternal City. So I am hoping and praying that as our pilgrims begin their activities this good weather will accompany them.

I also am quite disappointed that the installation of the new Bishop of Helena, who is my immediate successor, has caused my early departure from Rome so that I could not spend the hoped-for time with our pilgrims. But it is only fitting that I offer the Diocese of Helena this last public act of love and affection which is available for me in attending the installation of Bishop George Thomas who is a great blessing to me and to his brother bishops, and who will certainly be a wonderful blessing for the Diocese of Helena, as I know he will find a wonderful blessing in the priests and the people there.

Confirmed in faith in various ways

As I reflect on these days of official visit, not surprisingly there are three points to be made. The first concerns being confirmed in the faith at the See of Peter which is one of the primary purposes of the official quinquennial visit. This has happened in a rich variety of ways, but I would note the particular convictions of our faith in which I have found strong confirmation.

In the first place the Holy Father gave us a beautiful allocution about the prophetic role of the Church and the bishop, that is our shared obligation to teach the truth. He warned us and encouraged us to withstand the rising tide of every kind of agnosticism, relativism, and subjectivism, in favor of the truth of Christ. I was strongly confirmed in my own faith conviction by his words. As you know, I have strongly spoken out against moral relativism and a seeming lack of basic moral starting points for resolving the great moral issues of our time, a lack which we see both in our state and throughout our nation and our culture.

Celibacy, sacredness of life, reverence

Secondly, I was strongly confirmed in my conviction that celibacy is and will continue to be a marvelous gift of Christ to the Church through the celibacy of our priests. To be able to sacrifice the deep desire to be both good husband and good father by God's Grace is a kind of guarantee at the very beginning that a young man will be able to make all the other sacrifices which Christ the High Priest will call forth from him in his priesthood. And so the powerful jewel of celibacy which always remains sacrificial, found reinforcement as one of our strong faith convictions.

The sacredness of human life from conception until natural death was strongly confirmed as one of the most basic of our faith convictions. We were told that one cannot exercise a legitimate freedom of choice by killing the freedom of other human beings even to live and to grow as human.

Lastly, the strong need for renewed reverence in our liturgical worship was affirmed, and this is so important for us as we begin to implement more and more fully the General Instruction of the Third Roman Missal, the new instruction on the liturgy called "The Sacrament of Our Redemption," and in due time the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal itself. It's all about reverence, that wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit whose coming we celebrate this weekend. And so with my brother bishops, my faith was indeed confirmed here at the See of Peter in a rich variety of ways including all of the above.

Strengthening faith in prayer at tombs

Even more powerfully my faith and that of my brother bishops was confirmed by our prayer in faith at the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul. As I looked around at brother bishops including Cardinal George and Archbishop Dolan, I was struck many times at how unworthy I am to be called into such a group, and yet clearly this has happened at the design and initiative of Christ.

For us together to celebrate the Mass and to profess our Catholic faith at the tomb of St. Peter and at the tomb of St. Paul enlivens a particular strengthening in that faith which is almost impossible to put into words. For those times of prayer to and through the saints on the shedding of whose blood our faith was founded I will be forever deeply grateful.

Private audience with Pope John Paul II

And last, certainly not least, came the private audience with our Holy Father Pope John Paul II. This took place for me at 11:20 on May 28th, yesterday, and lasted about 10 minutes.

After the opening photo opportunities, there was no one else in the room and although the 10 minutes passed very quickly there was a depth in the moment which seemed to prolong those minutes in a very beautiful way.

Vocations, family life

The Holy Father asked about our work for vocations and of course I gave him an update and assured him that the promotion of vocations and recruitment remains my top priority which he strongly affirmed. He then asked about a life of religious sisters in our diocese. I told him that I had met many of the sisters and visited our Dominican Motherhouse at Sinsinawa and he encouraged me to remain in conversation that would lead to the building up of the consecrated life and the promotion of vocations to the consecrated life in our diocese which I will certainly do as I had already indicated to the Dominican sisters at Sinsinawa during my visit there.

Lastly the Holy Father asked me about family life in our diocese and I indicated that we did have a fine diocesan office for family life and that especially in the rural sections of our diocese family life was thriving. He and I agreed that good priests can only come forth from good families. At the same time we acknowledged the difficulty of the promotion of gay marriages in our culture, and I indicated that my efforts would continue to explain in a gentle and loving way the mind of our God as reflected in creation and the natural law about this particular matter so that all might feel invited to embrace the truth of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Apostolic blessing to all

In closing the Holy Father expressed great love and affection for Bishops Bullock and Wirz, the priests, the deacons, the consecrated religious, all of the wonderful people in the Diocese of Madison with special concern for the sick and for the young people, imparting his special apostolic blessing to all.

This was a level of strengthening in the faith which truly cannot be put into words, and I hope that when I have the opportunity to visit with many of you in the days ahead you will ask me and remind me to comment further about these very special moments with the direct successor of Peter.

Prayer during busy times

Tomorrow is the great feast of Pentecost, Monday with God's help I shall return home, Tuesday I will celebrate my 30th anniversary of priestly ordination - I ask the help and strength of your prayers for that very important day in my life - and Wednesday I will leave for Helena, Montana, for the installation of Bishop Thomas. So these are busy times.

At all of the holy places here and at our Masses you have been very much in my heart, in my love, and in my prayers and I ask your continued prayers in the days ahead, especially June 1st, for an ever deeper faith for health, and for safety in travel.

God love you all! I certainly love you all and have experienced that love very deeply during these days in Rome. Thank you for reading this. God bless each one of you. Praised be Jesus Christ!