Editorial

On February 20, Bishop Robert C. Morlino convened a diocesan Board of Inquiry to examine a presumed miraculous cure of a Madison man attributed to Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli. He is a 19th Century Dominican missionary priest who served in what is now Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa.

	Related article: • Future saint? Diocesan Tribunal explores miracle attributed to Fr. Mazzuchelli

The local tribunal will hear testimony, record it, and eventually send it to Rome. Pope John Paul II declared Father Mazzuchelli "Venerable" in 1993. This is the first step in the process of official Catholic Church recognition of the priest's sanctity. Rome formally acknowledged that his virtues were heroic.

The title "Venerable" was granted in response to a formal request made to Rome 30 years before, in 1964. The Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, an order Father Mazzuchelli founded in 1847, are now praying that Rome will name him "Blessed," the second step toward canonization or sainthood.

Living legacy. The Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters are a living legacy, carrying on the work of Father Samuel, as they fondly call him. Also a living legacy are the people and pastors of the many parishes he founded.

It's amazing that this Italian immigrant - who spoke no English when he came to America - was able to establish more than 30 parishes. He also designed and built more than 20 churches in addition to civic buildings.

Learn more about him. For people in our diocese who don't know much about Father Samuel, you can learn more about him by visiting the exhibit "Samuel Mazzuchelli, OP, Tracing a Journey," at Sinsinawa Mound. This exhibit follows the footsteps of Father Samuel as he journeys across the Atlantic Ocean from Italy through the American frontier to the Midwest. The exhibit highlights his accomplishments as a religious leader, educator, and builder throughout the Mississippi Valley.

Those attending the exhibit can view the stunning display of Mazzuchelli artifacts, including his writing desk, chalice, chasuble, and penance chain. The exhibit concludes with a look at the legacy the Dominican priest left the people in the tri-state area and throughout the world.

The Mazzuchelli exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Groups larger than five are asked to call in advance to make arrangements at 608-748-4411.

Fr. Samuel Mazzuchelli was a man of deep faith and his legacy lives on. I encourage people in our diocese to pray for the work of this tribunal and for the success of his cause for canonization. Visit www.sinsinawa.org for more information.

Mary C. Uhler

Mailbag

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Pray that Supreme Court will get it right this time

To the editor:

Will they get it right this time? In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court shocked the nation by striking down a Nebraska law prohibiting the horrific late-term partial-birth abortion procedure. A partial-birth abortion involves pulling the baby out of womb feet first until only the head remains in the mother's body. The abortionist then stabs the baby at the base of the skull with a sharp instrument, inserts a suction catheter through the opening, and then suctions out the baby's brains.

Partial-birth abortions are performed most often at around 20 weeks but are also performed into the ninth month. About 4,000 to 6,000 partial-birth abortions are performed annually in the United States.

In 2003, the U.S. Congress passed another ban on this gruesome procedure and it was signed into law by President Bush. Pro-abortion forces immediately challenged the new law in the courts and it is now being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Their ruling could come at any time.

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the partial-birth abortion ban, it would apply to all states. In 1998, Wisconsin Right to Life spearheaded the enactment of a state partial-birth abortion ban which is under injunction following the 2000 Supreme Court decision. Whether the Wisconsin ban becomes operative depends on whether the federal ban is upheld and the text of the court's decision.

Please pray that the second time before the U.S. Supreme Court will result in an emphatic rejection of partial-birth abortion . . . and eventually lead to a rejection of all abortion.

Susan Armacost, legislative director,
Wisconsin Right to Life, Milwaukee

Don't mix these two issues

To the editor:

As a lifelong pro-life advocate, I was very offended by John Huebscher's (executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference) column "Welcoming the Undocumented, Unborn: On Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade."

Maybe I have missed something over the last 34 years of legalized abortion, but I don't recall hearing about 50 million immigrants being systematically dismembered. To mix the issues of abortion and immigration on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade denies the babies their day.

While abortion is America's Holocaust, I wonder if Huebscher plans to write a similar column comparing immigration to the Jewish Holocaust? Need I say more?

J. Whittley, Stoughton

Praise for archbishop's talk

To the editor:

On January 14, 2007, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee addressed an audience in the Pontifical North American College in Rome in a lecture very appropriate for the season of Lent (as reported in the February 15 issue of the Catholic Herald [print edition only]):

"Maybe the greatest threat to the Church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism, not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails no battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms."

Catholics in Wisconsin should be proud of our archbishop who represented all of us while he was in Rome.

Charles J. Sippel, Waterloo