Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

National Vocation Awareness Week is November 3-9

Seminarian Group
Seminarians from the Diocese of Madison are pictured with Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison and Fr. Gregory Ihm, vocations director for the diocese, right. For more on discerning and answering God’s call, see the special section on vocations in the October 31 issue of the Catholic Herald. (Contributed photo)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week, November 3-9, 2019.

During this week, dioceses across the U.S. lead the effort in parishes and schools to uphold and encourage the fostering of vocations among the faithful, and to pray for those currently discerning a call to marriage, ordained ministry, or Consecrated Life.

In his message for the 2019 World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis reminded the faithful that unlike a secular career, a vocation is a gift born from God’s own initiative: “The Lord’s call is not an intrusion of God into our freedom; it is not a ‘cage’ or burden to be borne. On the contrary, it is the loving initiative whereby God encounters us and invites us to be a part of a great undertaking.”

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Kevin Wondrash

A ‘beautiful’ priesthood for Bishop Hying

“It’s a call that comes to you through God, obviously mediating through others, and through our experience,” said Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison.

In his first year as the fifth Bishop of Madison, Bishop Hying is celebrating 30 years of priesthood.

While now the spiritual shepherd of the diocese, Bishop Hying’s journey began like that of many men — discerning and living out a call to the priesthood.

“Every priest really has a vocation narrative,” he said.

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Kevin Wondrash

Reflections on Dominus Iesus, part two

Bishop Donald J. Hying's column

In my last column, I began speaking about the Declaration Dominus Iesus (“the Lord Jesus”), which recalls for us “certain indispensable elements of Christian doctrine” that we all need to keep in mind as we think about one of the big questions confronting the Amazon Synod in Rome, which is simply this: how are we called to relate to followers of non-Christian religions, many of whom have never heard the proclamation of the saving truth of the Gospel?

What are these “indispensable elements of Christian doctrine”? The Declaration mentions more things than we have space to discuss here, but I want to highlight the first one in particular, which has to do with the fullness and definitiveness of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Kevin Wondrash

Imagine having no place to call home

Just imagine for a moment that you have no home. What will you do for meals today? Where will you shower? Where will you sleep? If you have children, how will you provide for them?

And how will you cope with being homeless tomorrow, next week, next month?

Sad crisis

Such imaginations are distressing. Aren’t they? But let’s not allow these distressing imaginations to cause us to ignore the sad crisis facing so many children, women, and men: the crisis of having no place to call home.

Instead, let’s make an effort to better understand why this devastating crisis exists. And what we can do to help end it.

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Kevin Wondrash

Relic collection available for veneration on November 3

PRAIRIE DU SAC — We recently celebrated All Saints’ Day. This celebration makes manifest our belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven (the “Church Triumphant”), and the living (the “Church Militant”).

We venerate relics — not because the individual saint is worthy of some sort of worship, or because there is anything inherently powerful in the relic itself — but because relics are used by God as a means of grace and to show His power and love.

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Kevin Wondrash

Reflections on ‘Dominus Iesus’

The primary aim of the Amazon Synod that is happening right now in Rome is, in the words of Pope Francis, to “identify new ways for the evangelization of that portion of the people of God, and especially the indigenous peoples.”1

This question of how to evangelize is very important, not only for the Amazon Region, but for the whole Church. How do we bring Jesus Christ to those who have never heard of him? And more specifically, how are we called to treat other cultures and other religions with the respect they deserve yet without compromising the saving truth of the Gospel?

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