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Artistic representations of the 10 Commandments often depict two stone tablets on which there are two tables of inscriptions. This portrayal follows from a classical division of the commandments in which there are two specific categories — those that order humanity’s relationship with God and those that order human relationships with one another.
STOUGHTON — A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for Dr. Marlen Frederick Junck on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018, at 11 a.m. at St. Ann Church, 323 N. Van Buren St. in Stoughton.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino will preside at the Mass. Fr. Randy Budnar, pastor of St. Ann Parish, will be the homilist.
Visitation will be held on Friday, Feb. 9, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cress Funeral Home, 206 W. Prospect St., Stoughton. Visitation will also be held prior to the Mass from 10 to 11 a.m. Interment will be at St. Ann Cemetery in Stoughton.
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Ten years ago, when I was a visiting scholar at the North American College in Rome, I fell into a spirited conversation with one of the seminarians about the state of evangelization in America.
We both were bemoaning the fact that the “new” atheists — Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others — were regularly attacking religion, and I commented that no Christian spokesman had managed to engage the enemies of the faith well on the public scene.
JANESVILLE — St. Patrick School in Janesville will be closing at the end of the current school year, it was announced at Masses on the weekend of January 27 and 28.
Currently, the school has an enrollment of 11 students in grades kindergarten through eight, in addition to 11 students in the public partnership 4K program.
This enrollment, a continued projected decline, and the fact that the operational cost of the school is over $200,000 per year led both the parish pastoral council and finance council to recommend the school’s closure to Pastor Fr. Tim Renz.
Father Renz contacted Bishop Robert C. Morlino notifying him of the recommendations being made by his parish councils. In a statement, the Diocese of Madison said that there has been ongoing conversation among the four Catholic parishes in Janesville about their schools “and the diocese anticipates the results of that collaboration with optimism.”
St. Patrick Parish is the oldest Catholic parish in Janesville. Catholic families have been praying together in the fourth ward of Janesville for over 170 years. In 1844, they learned that they would be getting a priest of their own. In 1845, the first Mass was celebrated in the church they built.
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Word on Fire
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In these days, therefore, let us add something beyond ordinary expectations of our service. Let each one, over and above the measure prescribed, offer God something of his own freewill in the joy of the Holy Spirit. ~ Rule of St. Benedict, Sixth century
In roughly three weeks, Ash Wednesday will arrive and with this commemoration, the Church begins the penitential practices of Lent.
Catholic Schools Week is the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States, including in schools in the Diocese of Madison. It starts the last Sunday in January and runs all week, which in 2018 is January 28 to February 3.
The theme for Catholic Schools Week 2018 is “Catholic Schools: Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.
Schools typically observe the annual celebration week with Masses, open houses, and other activities for students, families, parishioners, and community members.
MADISON — Madison-area men will have a “start of Lent” opportunity to enhance their Lenten experience at the newly renovated Jesuit Retreat House overlooking Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh.
It’s a rare chance to spend time with God in prayer, surrounded by the beauty, peace, and solitude of nature.
“What God reveals in Scripture is the love in which we are created, the love that sustains us, and the love in which we will rest,” said Fr. Chris Manahan, Retreat House director.
To the editor:
A person breaking an eagle egg gets arrested. A doctor piercing a baby’s heart inside the womb is not arrested. They don’t call it a baby.
A doctor who fixes a baby’s heart in the womb is praised, and they call it a baby.
They call it a mother’s choice to kill or not to kill. Yet they advertise on TV to save the animals. Send money to help animals, because they are mistreated.
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In his visit to the United States, Pope Francis especially praised two Catholics. They were Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day.
In 1925, Dorothy Day became pregnant. Because of a previous abortion, her pregnancy seemed a miracle. Now she had to make the toughest decision she ever made. If she gave birth, Forster Batterham, the child’s father, would leave her. He would stay with her if she aborted their baby.
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John Joy |
This new year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s magnificent profession of faith, the Creed of the People of God.
The 1960s were a tumultuous time in society at large and a time of great confusion in the Church. After the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), many Catholics thought that it was no longer important to believe the teachings of the Church or that the teaching of the Church had changed.
