Year: 2013

On
Kevin Wondrash

Support for ban on gender-based abortions

The Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) joined other pro-life groups in voicing support for a bill before the Wisconsin Legislature to impose a civil penalty on doctors who knowingly perform sex-selective abortions.

Assembly Bill 217 (authored by Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elkhart Lake) received a public hearing on May 29 before the state Assembly Committee on Health.

Sex-selective abortion

A sex-selective abortion is an abortion that is performed when the parent or parents of the unborn child abort because the baby is not of the desired sex. Most of the time, unborn girls are aborted because the parents wanted to have a son.

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Catholic priests: Answering the call to priesthood at many ages

Editor's View by Mary C. Uhler

Our three new priests in the Diocese of Madison seem to be following trends, according to a survey of priests being ordained in the United States this year.

Fr. Vincent Brewer, one of our newly ordained priests, has a degree in technical communication management and worked in the telecommunications industry before he entered the seminary. He attended Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass., which prepares candidates for the priesthood between the ages of 30 and 60.

Another of our new priests, Fr. Stephen Petrica, was ordained an Anglican priest and decided to enter the  Catholic Church. He then sought to become a Catholic priest and was accepted by the Diocese of Madison. He studied at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

Our third newest priest, Fr. Garrett Kau, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He did not follow the later vocation path, since he became involved at St. Paul’s University Catholic Center at the university. He attended a men’s retreat featuring a panel of priests speaking about their vocations. After that, he looked into Church vocations and “decided to take the plunge” and apply for seminary studies.

Called at later ages

By and large, the age of men feeling the call to the priesthood is gradually increasing, as reported in a new study released by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and reported in an article by Catholic News Service.

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Fr. Donald Lange

Father’s Day shows dad’s importance

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, a column by Fr. Donald Lange

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd is known as the “Mother of Father’s Day.” In 1909, she heard a sermon on the need to set aside a day to honor mothers. She agreed, but she wondered why there wasn’t a day to honor fathers.

Her father, William Jackson Smart, left indelible marks of love on her heart.

He was a Civil War veteran and a widower for 21 years who heroically raised Sonora and her five younger brothers after their mother died while giving birth to her brother Marshal.

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Adoration worldwide: Joining with Holy Father on June 2
Diocesan Adoration schedule
Click here for a list of Adoration locations and times throughout the diocese.

MADISON  — As a special event during the Year of Faith, Catholics throughout the world will be joining with Pope Francis in Eucharistic Adoration on the Feast of Corpus Christi, Sunday, June 2.

On that day, the Holy Father will preside at an hour of Eucharistic Adoration in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican at 5 p.m. Rome time, in communion with all bishops and with their local diocesan communities around the world.

In Wisconsin, that occurs at 10 a.m. Bishop Robert C. Morlino is promoting this time of Adoration at the Cathedral Parish in Madison at St. Patrick Church at 10 a.m., prior to his 11 a.m. Stational Mass.

Bishop Morlino has invited people throughout the Diocese of Madison either to join him at St. Patrick Church or attend times of Eucharistic Adoration at their own parishes and in the various Vicariates of the diocese at 10 a.m. where possible, recognizing the reality of Mass schedule conflicts on a Sunday morning, or at other times on that Sunday.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Bishops release revised end-of-life letter

MADISON — Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops have released the third edition of their pastoral letter on end-of-life health care decision-making and advance care planning, Now and at the Hour of Our Death.

The letter voices the bishops’ concern and compassion for those facing critical health care decisions, and shares a moral and ethical framework for making such decisions.

Popular document

“The conference issued the first edition of this pastoral statement in 2002. That edition and the second one issued in 2006 have proven to be our most frequently requested document,” explained Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) Executive Director John Huebscher.

“In the seven years since the second edition, we have seen even greater interest in the moral questions surrounding death and dying. The bishops are resolved to keep responding to that interest. Reissuing the document is an effective way to do that.”

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

The Eucharist — Believe it: We truly encounter Jesus’ presence

Editor's View by Mary C. Uhler

During this Year of Faith, the Catholic Church is asking all of us to reflect on various aspects of our faith and its meaning in our daily lives.

When Pope Benedict XVI talked about the reasons for calling for a Year of Faith, he said that one of his considerations was that it would provide an opportunity “to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed and also the source from which all its power flows” (Porta Fidei).

Pope Benedict’s words are actually taken from a document of the Second Vatican Council called Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which calls the Eucharist “the source and summit of Christian life.”

Christ is really present in the Eucharist

Our Catholic faith teaches us that Jesus Christ is really present in the Eucharist. At the Last Supper Jesus changed bread and wine into his body and blood. This is a key doctrine of our faith.

What is sad is that surveys have shown that many Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Some only believe that the bread and wine are symbols, not the real body and blood of Christ.

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Abbot Marcel Rooney

The Holy Eucharist: Theology and Spirituality, part two

By Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

year of faith column logo

This is the second in a series of articles examining the theology and spirituality of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

We have seen in a previous reflection that the first thing the Holy Eucharist does is proclaim God’s great love for us, above all through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus (i.e., His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension) which is the means of our eternal salvation.

In the light of that great divine love coming to us, through sacramental signs, we need to respond in faith and in love.

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On
Fr. Donald Lange

Feast of Corpus Christi: Honoring the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, a column by Fr. Donald Lange

On June 2, we celebrate Corpus Christi, the feast of the Eucharist. In Latin Corpus Christi means the Body of Christ. The full Latin name of this feast is “Corpus et Sanguis Christi’’ — “The Body and Blood of Christ.”

In some countries and sometimes in our diocese, during this feast there are edifying processions when the sacred host is carried outdoors or around the church.

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