In recent years, some medical practitioners have suggested that death from dehydration may not be such an unpleasant way for patients to die. This conclusion, however, remains rather doubtful.
Thirst and appetite are very primal drives, and anyone who has ever done a voluntary fast knows well the discomfort that arises from even a single day of fasting.
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
Despite the continued focus on the horrendous crimes of a relatively few priests within the Church, we move forward, a people of faith, cognizant of the fact that our Church is made up of sinners — our priests and bishops included — but that each of us has faith that it is Jesus Christ Himself who founded this Church, for our Salvation, and that He has sent the Holy Spirit to protect His Church from “the gates of hell.”
No matter the sins of Her members, even the terrible sins of a few of Her ministers, the Holy Spirit remains with the Bride of Christ, to care for Her, to reconcile all Her members to Christ, and to grant us everlasting life.
As one Body, each member of the Church is affected when another causes injury. We all feel profoundly the wounds inflicted by a few, and we must do all that we can to bring healing to those wounded. I don’t know that I’ve experienced that empathetic pain in anyone more than in our good priests and bishops. And that brings me to the point of this column.
On March 20, in the early hours before dawn, with two of our faithful daughters at his side, my husband Bob entered into eternal life.
Within moments the remaining eight of us arrived at Countryside Home and joined our pastor, Father Jay, to offer a final prayer over a body that seemed chiseled out of marble. We were all enveloped in a spiritual embrace of peace that can only come after a long and difficult battle.
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
On behalf of all the priests of the Diocese of Madison, and behalf of all my staff, I want to promise our sincere and continued Easter prayers, in this Resurrection season. Each one of you has our prayers for health, safety, and above all, deeper union with Christ. I beg you, too, to offer your Easter prayers for us, because each of us and our Church certainly always stand in need of prayer. I wanted to share with you here a few of the thoughts I offered at the Easter Vigil this year.
We celebrated Easter Sunday this year on April 4th — that day on which Christ was raised from the dead, the day which changed history forever. In some ways I had hoped to see some large signs and advertisements on Easter Sunday about how the Resurrection of Jesus Christ had happened and how we celebrated our new life on April 4. Instead, all the signs told me that April 3 was the launch of iPad! That tells me — and it should tell you — something significant about the mission that Jesus Christ places in our hands this Easter and everyday.
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
I want to wish you all a very blessed Holy Triduum and a very happy Easter. May it be a joyful and prayerful time for you and your family, and may it provide a powerful experience with our Lord Jesus, risen from the dead.
We are called, each and every day, to invite people to meet Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. In a very real way, this is the mission of my episcopacy here — it is the stated mission of my staff, and, by extension, it is truly the mission of each of us here in the 11 counties of south-central Wisconsin.
In order, credibly, to invite our neighbors to meet Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, we have to have met Him. So these days of Holy Week and Easter should be a very special time for each of us, when we intensify that meeting which we are called to have with the risen Christ. The proper celebration of Holy Week and Easter has everything to do with the mission to which each of us, by nature of our Baptism, is called.
When I make presentations on end-of-life decision making, I sometimes have audience members approach me afterwards with comments like, “You know, Father, when my mom died six years ago, and I look back on it, I’m not sure my brothers and I made the right decisions about her care.”
Remarks like these serve to remind us how the circumstances surrounding death are important not only for the person who passes on but also for those who remain behind.
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
After months of political machinations, things are moving extremely quickly and we are at an advanced and critical point with regard to our discussion of healthcare legislation, to the point that, as of this writing, the House has passed the terribly deficient Senate Bill, as well as a bill making a few changes (which do nothing to help in key matters). The Senate has yet to approve these few changes and all that is really left is the President’s signature. Much can happen between my writing and your reading this, so I’d like to take a look more at what has happened, and why it is not a good thing. What will happen is still yet to be seen.
This Lent has brought about a big change in our parish. We have doubled the attendance at daily Mass, thanks to a change in school policy. For the first time in maybe 30 years, the top three grades of our Catholic school students are attending Mass every day during Lent.
We daily Massers (a.k.a. senior citizens) had become adjusted to spreading out in our cozy little chapel, reserving the big church for Sundays and Thursdays when the whole student body is in attendance.
Surprised at first, we were happy to move over a bit and welcome a few teachers and so many bright young faces, filling every seat in our chapel. Only one thing worried me. What about our Word and Communion Service?
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
The story we heard in the Gospel on Sunday, the story (as it is called) of the “Prodigal Son,” is a terrific story. I have a bishop-friend who always refers to this, not as the parable of the prodigal son, but as the “parable of the two snots.” That, indeed, is exactly what it is.
Let’s take a brief look at the first son. In speaking of this story over the past weekend, Pope Benedict talked about how, as young people grow up, they go through a period of “infantile dependence” on their parents, during which time they practice “infantile obedience.” Then, as they hit those wonderful teens, they get the idea that they should be free and more independent of their parents. And then they sing that old song, “I gotta be free, I gotta be me.”
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Each year we are invited to reflect on the whole of our Lenten journey in the context of Jesus’ temptations in the desert. That’s a model, if you will, a paradigm, for what is supposed to happen during Lent. And, I am happy to say that I discovered again this year that, substantially, my reflections on this Gospel passage are in line with those of our Holy Father. I know that when I’m in communion with the Holy Father, by God’s grace and for the good of the diocese, I’m right on target.
