Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

Words of Saint John Paul II lit a fire in me

Bishop Donald J. Hying's column

Forty years ago this week, Saint John Paul II energized and inspired our country during his epic first Pastoral Visit to the United States.

Saint Paul VI had visited New York City in 1965 during a visit to the United Nations, but that short encounter was the extent of any papal presence in this country. Arriving directly from his remarkable pilgrimage to Ireland, Saint John Paul landed in Boston on a Monday afternoon and electrified all of us.

Listening to the pope

I was 16 at the time, thinking of priesthood, struggling to discern the mystery of such a call. I was also working my first restaurant job; having graduated from washing dishes to frying chicken, I was making $2.32 an hour, which even then was a terrible wage.

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Kevin Wondrash

Women invited to ‘A Day of Christian Renewal’

MADISON — The Madison Diocesan Council of Catholic Women and Madison Catholic Woman’s Club jointly invite all women of the diocese and their guests to “A Day of Christian Renewal” on Monday, Oct. 15, at St. Maria Goretti Parish Hall, 5313 Flad Ave., Madison.

Leading the retreat will be June Wessa, parish ministry consultant and co-director of the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh. She ties together Mr. Rogers, praying in color, and Women at the Well and explores these connections in her program, “Deep and Simple Faith.”

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Kevin Wondrash

Sauk City parish, school join with 40 Days for Life

SAUK CITY — St. Aloysius Church and School in Sauk City are joining with volunteer efforts in Madison and around the world by involving students and parishioners in various pro-life opportunities during 40 Days for Life this fall.

From September 25 to November 3, Madison and surrounding communities are uniting with the largest pro-life mobilization in history — the international 40 Days for Life campaign happening in a record number of 505 cities in all 50 states and 61 countries.

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Kevin Wondrash

Diocese offers courses

MADISON — The Seat of Wisdom Diocesan Institute (SOWDI) announces new coursework for this year. In the fall, the institute will be offering a short series on the dignity of the human person with courses entitled, “The Human Person: Created and Graced”; “The Word of God Revealed Among Us”; and “A Study of the Theology of the Body.

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Kevin Wondrash

All are invited to ‘An Hour with Jesus’

MIDDLETON — Beginning Wednesday, Oct. 9, “An Hour with Jesus,” will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at St. Bernard Church.

The program will include Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a short reflection, music, a handout which can be used for reflection during 20 minutes of quiet time, and finally Benediction.

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Kevin Wondrash

Trivia Night to be held in Watertown

WATERTOWN — The eighth annual Trivia Night hosted by the Home & School Association of the Watertown Catholic School will be held at the St. Henry campus on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Everyone is welcome. Gather your family, friends, and neighbors for a fun night of entertainment and friendly competition.

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Kevin Wondrash

Go forth and make disciples!

Bishop Donald J. Hying's column

When I became a bishop back in 2011, I attended a nine-day conference in Rome for new bishops from all over the world, put on by the Vatican.

The best part of the experience was meeting the other participants, 16 other Americans, 25 from Brazil, and one bishop from Iraq whose predecessor had been murdered by terrorists. The informal conversations were often more interesting than the scheduled talks.

Dealing with declining Church

At lunch on the third day, I sat with a newly appointed bishop from a diocese in the southern Netherlands. He told me that Mass attendance there hovered at about two percent, mostly elderly people; he had no seminarians, so there was no future for the priesthood. It wasn’t so much that the Church had collapsed as that it had evaporated!

I asked him where he was going to start in such a daunting situation. How do you begin when everything seems so hopeless? What he said did not surprise me, but it has stuck with me.

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Kevin Wondrash

Office of Worship to host series on Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

MADISON — The Office of Worship of the Diocese of Madison is continuing a series of popular seminars called This Sacred Council: An In-Depth Study of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

All sessions are led by renowned liturgical scholar Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB. His informative and enjoyable presentations make these sessions appropriate for anyone who participates in the Church’s liturgies.

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