Year: 2014

On
Nick Zimmerman, Graciela Tejeda, and Olivia Smithmier-Bohn, For the Catholic Herald

Tips for a better school year

Students from around the diocese took time out of their summer vacations to do something very unusual: come to school.

That’s right. For three weeks from Monday through Thursday, they spent their mornings at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison going to class, taking notes, doing homework, and preparing for a test.

Why would they do such a thing? The reason is simple: they want to be better students. They know that the school year is starting soon, and they know that Christ calls them to be the best students they can be.

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On
Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Dressing for success — and modesty

For parents and students everywhere, “back to school” means shopping and lots of it, mostly for supplies and clothes. In both of those areas, there can be debates and battles between parents and children on what each thinks the student should have.

With fashions and trends always changing, buying “school clothes” becomes a yearly challenge.

Schools in the Diocese of Madison try every year to create a safe and comfortable learning environment while dealing with new fashion trends.

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On
Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

A courageous journalist who knew the power of prayer

After hearing about the death of journalist James Foley, I learned that he was a graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Marquette’s website (www.marquette.edu) has lots of information about James Foley. Perhaps the most moving to me was a letter he wrote to Marquette after his first capture in 2011 upon returning home safely from Libya.

In that letter, Foley talks about the strength he drew not only from his own prayers, but also from the prayers of his family and friends. He tells how he and his colleague, Clare, prayed together in captivity.

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On
Fr. Donald Lange

Teachers are important for a good school year

The new school year invites us to reflect upon teachers’ importance.

Though they sometimes fall short like other humans, good teachers influence our youth who are the hope of the future. Through their classes pass future lawyers, doctors, reporters, writers, farmers, secretaries, engineers, and other shapers of tomorrow’s world.

Good teachers know and love their subject and their students. Coaches, chaperones, parents, counselors, and others who contribute to the school also teach youth. They often are role models.

We may have memories of teachers who made a difference. Some taught elementary school; others taught junior high, and still others taught high school or college. They often differed, but they had one trait in common. They cared about us, shared the subject that they loved, and helped us to grow. We should remember to thank them.

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On
Fr. Donald Lange

Reflections on work as we mark Labor Day

Labor Day offers us opportunities to reflect upon the value, blessings, and crosses of work from the perspective of Catholic spirituality. Since we spend much time working and commuting to work, such reflection is important.

In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” By our work, we honor the gifts and talents we received from God. Our work helps us to co-create with God by transforming creation in ways that benefit humanity, reflect Christ-like values, and bring creation to its completion and fulfillment.

Transforming the world — and ourselves

When we make crutches or rosaries, or write about poverty, we ought to feel good because our work benefits others. When we prepare meals, grow crops, or repair computers, we should be proud because our work serves others.

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On
Lillian Quinones

POLST: A Catholic moral dilemma (part two)

Author’s note:  “God is the foundation of hope: not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety. His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us. His love alone gives us the possibility of soberly persevering day by day, without ceasing to be spurred on by hope, in a world which by its very nature is imperfect” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Spei Salvi).

The words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI articulate the unique aspect of hope in the Catholic paradigm. In Part II of POLST: A Catholic Moral Dilemma, Dr. Franklin Smith contrasts POLST to the Catholic approach to end-of-life decision-making.

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On
Fr. Robert Barron

Why I love my invisible friend

One of the favorite taunts of the New Atheists is that religious people believe in an “invisible friend.”

They are implying, of course, that religion is little more than a pathetic exercise in wishful thinking, a reversion to childish patterns of projection and self-protection. It is well past time, they say, for believers to grow up, leave their cherished fantasies behind, and face the real world.

In offering this characterization, the New Atheists are showing themselves to be disciples of the old atheists such as Feuerbach, Marx, Comte, and Freud, all of whom made more or less similar observations.

I’m writing here to let atheists know that I think they’re right, at least about God being an invisible friend. Where they’re wrong is in supposing that surrendering to this unseen reality is de-humanizing or infantilizing.

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On
Jeff Kurowski, For the Catholic Herald

Catholic musician to sing at Bishop’s Charities Game

ALLOUEZ — The lyrics for “In Real Life,” the opening song on Amanda Vernon’s 2013 CD entitled Interior Gaze, include: “More than my favorite football team, I want you to see the real me.”

Occasionally when performing the song, Vernon adds the name of her favorite team, the Green Bay Packers.

“My parents are both from Wisconsin,” said Vernon, a singer, pianist, and composer. “We had two rules in our house. You have to be Catholic and be a Packers fan. I’m a legitimate cheesehead. I was born in La Crosse. My family then moved to Grand Rapids (Mich.).”

Vernon will get a close look at the Packers when she performs the National Anthem at the 2014 Bishop’s Charities Game, on Thursday, Aug. 28.

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On
Chris Lee

Bishops affirm support for marriage

MADISON — As lawyers argue the legality of Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman, the Catholic bishops of Wisconsin reaffirmed their support for that provision and the voters who approved it.

“In approving the long understood truth that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, the voters were not establishing a religious understanding of marriage as an institution,” the bishops said in a statement August 26. “Rather they were recognizing a truth about human relationships and the nurturing of generations.”

Wisconsin’s voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage in a 2006 referendum that garnered 59 percent of the vote. The amendment has since been challenged in federal court, and a judge for the Western District of Wisconsin held the measure to violate the U.S. Constitution.

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