Rev. Msgr. James […]
Year: 2011
Ecumenical celebrations of local foods
MADISON — Seven west side churches in Madison representing four denominations will join together in offering a series of events in January that explore the connections between food, faith, and farming.
Former college president returns to help Catholic Center
MADISON — For Jeff Karls, it’s been a happy homecoming to return to the Diocese of Madison where he grew up in the Dane and Lodi areas.
New children’s book series based at Durward’s Glen
BARABOO — If you got a Kindle for Christmas (especially the new Kindle Fire), you might want to consider buying a new book that appeals to the whole family.
A Sunny Day at Spring Pond is the first book in the Spring Pond Series by Baraboo author Pamela R. Quinlan. She developed the idea for her series of children’s books while volunteering as an outdoor tour guide at Durward’s Glen Retreat Center in Baraboo.
In vitro fertilization: Do the ends justify the means?
Since the birth of Louise Brown — the world’s first “test tube baby” — in 1978, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has become an increasingly common way for infertile couples to attempt to become parents.
Christmas prepares us for new beginnings
In John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved the world that God gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but might have eternal life.”
Gilbert Keith Chesterton wrote that out of love for us, “The hands that made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle and too tiny to change his own clothes or put food in his mouth. To share God’s love, Jesus experienced infant helplessness.”
Scripture tells us that God created us in his image. Since God is love, we image God best when we love. But sin keeps us from loving.
How we eat is as important as what we eat
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The season of celebrating the Nativity of Jesus Christ is complete with abundant opportunities for eating, many from long-held family traditions and others might just be questionable habits we have picked up in our daily struggle to make ends meet and jam another activity into our already over-scheduled daily routines.
What if the old maxim “You are what you eat” also included “You are how you eat”?
A fast-food culture
For instance, when was the last time I ate by myself from a fast-food drive-up window?
The cardinal Down Under
In the Baltimore of the 1960s, my canny pastor devised a neat scheme for getting “Father Visitor” (as the confessional doors read) to fill in during the summer for his vacationing curates: bring over newly-ordained Australians from their studies in Rome.
There were no language issues (save for those of, er, accent); by the standards of student priests fresh from the Urban College of Propaganda Fidei, the young Aussies were recompensed handsomely and got to see something of the United States; it was win-win, all around.
Thus in the summer of 1967 I met Fr. George Pell of Ballarat, who, with the oils of ordination still wet on his forehead, spent several months at my parish before embarking on doctoral studies at Oxford.
Faith and public life: Religion should not be relegated only to the private sphere
During the holiday season, we were subjected again to “Christmas wars” about public displays of Nativity scenes and controversies over calling a Christmas tree by its real name.
These squabbles are really part of a deeper effort to relegate religious practice to the private sphere. There are those who say, “It’s okay for you to practice your faith, but do it behind closed doors.”
Celebrating Catholic education at St. Ambrose dinner
Bishop Robert C. Morlino told over 500 guests at the recent St. Ambrose Academy Benefit Dinner held at the Marriott Hotel in Middleton that today a bishop needs to be a theologian, a defender of the faith, and an apologist.