To the editor:
After January 20, 2009, the U.S. Congress and U.S. citizens will be facing critical issues as follows:
1. American support for China’s coerced abortion policy.
2. Funding for international family planning programs that include abortion.
3. Eliminations of any restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research
To the editor:
Fr. Jim Murphy’s comments about Catholic participation in military service are off the mark. Service in the armed forces by people of faith is difficult and requires those serving to deal with moral issues.
To the editor:
I am writing this in response to an article written by Fr. Jim Murphy. The article was part of your December 25, 2008 edition.
Being a proud part of four generations of a military family, I retired from the USAF in 1982, I found his opinions on the Armed Forces of this great nation to be flawed.
To the editor:
You began your Editor’s View of the December 11, 2008, issue with the declaration that “ . . . people are suffering from the effects of an economic crisis worse than we’ve experienced since the Great Depression . . . ” You exhorted readers to participate in diocesan works of spiritual and material support for the unemployed. I very much applaud the works of charity you encourage. However, your statement about the gravity of this crisis is exaggerated and harmful.
To the editor:
Last spring the U.S. marked five years at war in Iraq and now we approach the call-up of 3,000 Wisconsin National Guard members for duty in Iraq. Surely there will be a growing number of local deaths in the Iraq war.
Navidad Gozosa, bendiciones de Año Nuevo
¡Bendito sea Jesús Cristo! Es mi agrado desearles a ustedes y sus seres queridos todas las bendiciones de Navidad y de esta estación de fiesta — bendiciones que se extenderán a través del Año Nuevo.
Es un tiempo alegre para todos nosotros, incluso aquellos de nosotros que pudiéramos estar, por una u otra razón, sufriendo. No estamos dispensados del llamado de estar alegres en Navidad, porque Cristo nuestro Salvador nace, y Él es la única fuente verdadera de nuestra esperanza y de la luz para nuestra vida.
Esta columna es adaptada de la homilía del obispo Roberto C. Morlino de la Iglesia de San Patrick, del domingo 14 de diciembre.
El segundo domingo de Adviento, oímos hablar a Juan el Bautista como “una voz que exclamaba en el desierto” y nosotros lo oímos otra vez en las lecturas de este último domingo. Y oímos, durante esa segunda semana de Adviento, sobre nuestra Madre Santa. Oímos cómo enviaron esta mujer vestida de sol, el modelo de la Iglesia, enviada al desierto, en donde un lugar había sido preparado para ella; el significado del desierto, transitoriamente, épocas difíciles.
Este domingo pasado por la mañana una encuesta de americanos salió diciendo que el 2008, en gran parte por razones económicas, ha sido el peor año que recuerdan. La encuesta, en nuestros términos, dice que, en gran parte debido a la economía, el 2008 ha sido, para la mayoría de los americanos, un desierto. Esos resultados de la encuesta no sorprenden a nadie.
I would like to share with you a special Christmas tradition from our family. It goes back as far as I can remember.
My mother was a wonderful baker, especially at Christmas time. She would spend the weeks before Christmas diligently turning out one wonderful confection after the other.
A knock on a rectory door. The parish priest opens the door to find a young man holding a newborn baby.
The child’s mother had died, shortly after giving birth. The baby’s father, overwhelmed by grief, was unable to care for the child by himself.
Jesus, God’s Word, became flesh in order to ultimately offer us the gift of his heavenly home. In John 3:16, it is stated, “Yes, God so loved the world that God gave us his only Son so that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have Eternal life.”
A great Catholic writer wrote that, out of love for us, the mighty hands that created the sun, moon, stars, and planets and hurled them into space became a tiny baby with hands so small that they could not reach up to touch the noses of the sheep and oxen who warmed him with their hayed breath.
