Year: 2020

On
Kevin Wondrash

Lifting up contribution of Catholic education

We celebrate Catholic Schools Week in this last week of January with special Masses, fun activities, and service events in all of our schools.

This week lifts up the invaluable contribution of Catholic education to the lives of our young people and children, as they are formed to know Jesus, love Him, and serve Him as Catholic disciples of the Gospel.

I profoundly thank Dr. Michael Lancaster and everyone in our diocesan Schools Office, our principals, teachers, staff, students, and parents for the dedication, generosity, leadership, and service they offer to help our schools flourish and our children to realize their full potential as beloved children of God.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Kevin Wondrash promoted to assistant editor of Catholic Herald

MADISON — Mary Uhler, editor of the Catholic Herald-Diocese of Madison, announces that Kevin Wondrash has been promoted to assistant editor of the paper.

He replaces Pam Payne, who retired in January after over 45 years on the newspaper’s staff.

“While serving as our reporter, Kevin has trained with Pam to do work on the production and outputting of pages we send to the printer along with other jobs such as posting articles and photos to our website,” said Uhler.

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On
Erin Kerns, For the Catholic Herald

New fund to offer tuition assistance to parish grade schools

MADISON — The Catholic Diocese of Madison Foundation, Inc. (CDMF) is excited to announce a new fund that will provide tuition assistance to families seeking a Catholic education at a Diocese of Madison parish grade school (K-8).

The Hathaway Family Tuition Assistance Endowment was established in December of 2018 by a generous gift from Steve and Elaine Hathaway and their families.

When determining how the Hathaways would leave their legacy, Elaine recalled her parents, who made it a priority to have their seven children attend Catholic grade school, only made possible by receiving tuition assistance from their parish.

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On
Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Annual Catholic Appeal kick-off event

Bishop Hying and ACA Family
Bishop Donald J. Hying meets with Kellie and Michael Ryan, the 2020 Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA) chair couple. A new initiative this year, the chair couple will serve with the bishop as spokespersons in promoting the ACA and helping to raise awareness for the appeal. (Catholic Herald photo/Mary C. Uhler)

MADISON — The theme of this year’s Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA) is “Love never fails.” If it sounds familiar, one of the reasons is that “Love never fails” is Bishop Donald J. Hying’s episcopal motto.

It is taken from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13:8) that expresses the Christian doctrine that in all we do, we should do it with love.

At the ACA kick-off event held January 21 at St. Maria Goretti Church in Madison, Bishop Hying said this theme “captures the essence of the Gospel. God’s love always triumphs in the end.”

ACA chair couple

As a new initiative this year, Bishop Hying has implemented an ACA chair couple to serve with him in promoting the ACA and helping raise awareness of the appeal.

The first chair couple are Kellie and Michael Ryan, members of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Belleville along with their six children. The Ryans have been strong supporters of the ACA since they moved to the Diocese of Madison from Pennsylvania over six years ago.

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On
Michael Lancaster

Catholic schools teach children who they are

It seems these days that our culture is focused on the question of individual identity. Young people are searching to find out who they are.

They are yearning to define themselves in the world and to give their lives specific meaning. Whether it is the type of clothes they wear, the music they listen to, the food they eat, the company they keep, or their social media profile and postings on Facebook and Instagram, etc., everyone seems to be engaged in the tasking of forging a unique identity in the search to add meaning and significance to their life.

Searching for meaning

The question of the meaning of human existence is not new. People have been asking this ever since the dawn of time. “Who am I?” “What is the meaning of life?” “What is the meaning of my life?”

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On
Fr. Richard Heilman

Marching Bosco’s pillars around the state Capitol

Fr. Richard Heilman

On Friday, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m., we are calling all pro-lifers to join together on this Feast of St. John Bosco, as we bring “Bosco’s Two Pillars” of the Most Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary to the sidewalks surrounding the Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison.

We will meet on the State St. steps and then process the Holy Eucharist and Our Lady around the State Capitol. All who march with us will be given Epiphany Holy Water and Exorcised and Blessed Salt to sprinkle around our State Capitol, and call upon God to bless and transform our state and country back to a culture of life.

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On
Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison

Spreading the Gospel of life is our mission

This week, we once again commemorate the sad anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision in 1973 which legalized abortion throughout our country.

Since then, millions and millions of human lives have been legally snuffed out in the very beginning of their existence without the chance of making their contribution to the world or knowing the wonder of our human experience.

Last year globally, 41 million abortions occurred. These numbers are staggering when we compare them to any other human tragedy which destroys lives.

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