Msgr. James Bartylla, Vicar General, announces the following priest appointments made by Most Reverend Donald J. Hying, Bishop of Madison, effective Saturday, November 2, 2019, and announced at weekend Masses of Saturday and Sunday, October 5 and 6, 2019.
Category: Bishop
Words of Saint John Paul II lit a fire in me
 |
|
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.
Appointments (9-30-2019)
Msgr. James Bartylla, Vicar General, announces the following priest appointments made by Most Reverend Donald J. Hying, Bishop of Madison, effective Monday, September 30, 2019, and announced at weekend Masses of Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29, 2019.
Go forth and make disciples!
|
|
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.
We are called to build a monastery in our hearts
|
|
The center point of my spiritual geography is New Melleray Trappist Abbey, just west of Dubuque, Iowa. I have returned there often for retreats ever since I first visited at the age of 19.
Founded in 1849 as a daughter house of Melleray Abbey in Ireland, this monastic community rises at 3:30 a.m. every morning for Vigils, the first liturgical hour of the day. The monks’ days are filled with prayer, meditation, work, and silence.
From the first time I entered their beautiful stone chapel, I have felt profoundly embraced by God at New Melleray; some of my deepest prayer experiences have occurred there. If I could have ever convinced God that the Trappist life was my vocation, I would be peeling potatoes and scrubbing floors there as I write now!
Freedom of religion is at risk worldwide
|
|
Worldwide, Christians are being killed explicitly for their faith in alarmingly large numbers these past years. North Korea, the Middle East, and Africa are some of the top hotspots for Christian persecution.
Believers in Christ are being systematically driven out of the Holy Land through intimidation, prejudice, and lack of opportunity. Soon, there will be almost zero Christians in the country where Jesus lived. More martyrs are being born through a bloody death than any time since the early Church!
Religious freedom at risk
Here at home, we do not face such overt violence because of our religious beliefs, but some significant shifts in political praxis have put our religious freedom at risk.
The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees religious liberty in our country. This right is not some beneficent gift from the government; it is inscribed in our human nature as an inherent right to exercise freedom of conscience. No one can either compel or restrict religious belief or practice. Faith is a sacred gift nurtured in the heart and soul.
Jesus urges us to cast away fear
|
|
The Storm at Sea occurs in each of the Gospels, that perilous moment when the apostles are terrified by the wind and the waves on the Sea of Galilee until Jesus calms the tempest and encourages them to not be afraid.
In the Gospels, the apostles’ boat always symbolizes the Church. And so we think of all the times in the history of the Church that there have been storms, difficulties, and challenges, including persecutions, betrayals from within, epic struggles with political powers, global wars, theological divisions, and terrible instances of clergy sexual abuse.
We think of our own lives, the suffering we have gone through, the challenges we have faced, the changes that perhaps have intruded into our lives in an unwelcome way — all the things that frighten, overwhelm, or disturb us.
‘Do not be afraid’
The constant message of the Storm at Sea is Jesus’ refrain, “Do not be afraid. It is I. I am with you.” Throughout the Scriptures, this urging to cast away fear is God’s constant message to us.
Somebody went through all the hard work of counting how many times in the Bible God says, “Do not be afraid!” and it’s 366 — one for every day of the year plus Leap Year.
Teaching children to know, love, and serve God
|
|
As another school year begins and we lament the rapid passage of summer, I ponder the gift and blessing of our children and young people — the greatest treasure of the Church and the world.
Our Diocese pours significant resources into the formation of our children and youth, through our schools, religious education programs, and youth ministry.
And rightfully so. We want each child to know, love, and serve God. We want each young person to be a zealous disciple of the Lord Jesus. We want each person to grow up, flourishing in the abundant life of the Gospel, becoming the saint that God has called them to be.
Advocate of Catholic Schools
I have always been a big advocate of Catholic schools. Every study shows that graduates of parochial schools practice the Faith, support the Church, contribute to the poor, have a keener sense of social justice, and are more successful in their vocations than the average population.
A learning environment imbued in faith and love, permeated by prayer, and strong in Christian values becomes a blessed, formative experience that impacts the whole person — soul, body, mind, and heart.
‘I feel like I have died and gone to heaven!’
In my short time here in the Diocese, people have asked me how things are going, how I like it so far.
I always say that I feel like I have died and gone to heaven! Everyone has been so welcoming, kind, warm, generous, and faith-filled. I immediately felt at home here because of your remarkable goodness. Thank you for such a precious gift!
Appointments (8-10-19)
Msgr. James Bartylla announces the following priest appointments made by Most Reverend Donald J. Hying, Bishop of Madison, effective Tuesday, August 13, 2019: