MADISON — When high school graduates go off to college, their faith and moral life are often tested in this new environment.
Year: 2010
Our Lady of Hope Clinic celebrates one year of Catholic primary care
Our Lady of Hope Clinic marked its first anniversary of providing authentically Catholic primary care to southern Wisconsin on Thursday, April 1.
Camp Gray: Summer camp and year-round retreat center
It all started with a dream.
Msgr. Francis X. Gray, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Baraboo, sought to provide a place for youth to have fun and grow in their faith — a place where they could escape from the struggles of everyday life. The year? 1953.
Earth Day invites us to respect God’s creation
On April 22, we celebrate Earth Day. Earth Day was founded in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. senator from Wisconsin. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans crowded streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Earth Day’s time had come.
Earth Day offers us Catholics opportunities to reflect upon statements by recent popes and bishops regarding our moral responsibility towards creation. In his address on the World Day of Peace 2010, Pope Benedict XVI focused upon the theme “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation.”
Speak out, defend Church, and draw others to Christ
Reading my local newspaper I find the Holy Spirit directing me to speak out in regard to the article about Pope Benedict stalling a pedophile case in 1985.
Wonderful celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday at St. Aloysius, Sauk City
To the editor:
My family attended Divine Mercy Sunday activities at St. Aloysius Church in Sauk City. It was incredible. I want to thank the priests and the organizers of the events for their dedication and commitment to leading others to Christ.
‘Compassion boom’ hits our country
In past years during tough economic times, there was a decrease in the number of people serving as volunteers in our country.
Fortunately, that has not been happening during our current economic crisis, reported a recent poll taken for PARADE magazine. Instead, this poll shows that there’s a “compassion boom” with more and more people helping others.
Donate vegetable plants for community garden
As gardeners make their spring trek to a popular local garden center, they’ll have a chance to pick one or more packs of young plants that will end up as fresh produce on the tables of Dane County families in need.
Priests: Chosen by Holy Spirit, working with Christ
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
Despite the continued focus on the horrendous crimes of a relatively few priests within the Church, we move forward, a people of faith, cognizant of the fact that our Church is made up of sinners — our priests and bishops included — but that each of us has faith that it is Jesus Christ Himself who founded this Church, for our Salvation, and that He has sent the Holy Spirit to protect His Church from “the gates of hell.”
No matter the sins of Her members, even the terrible sins of a few of Her ministers, the Holy Spirit remains with the Bride of Christ, to care for Her, to reconcile all Her members to Christ, and to grant us everlasting life.
As one Body, each member of the Church is affected when another causes injury. We all feel profoundly the wounds inflicted by a few, and we must do all that we can to bring healing to those wounded. I don’t know that I’ve experienced that empathetic pain in anyone more than in our good priests and bishops. And that brings me to the point of this column.
Sister Helen Spellecy (Justine), OP, dies
Dominican Sister Helen Spellecy (Justine) died April 20, 2010, at St. Dominic Villa, Sinsinawa.