Category: Columns

On
Msgr. Daniel Ganshert

Everyone can do something

Living and Learning column by Msgr. Daniel T. Ganshert

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. This is the intent behind the new Annual Catholic Appeal in our diocese.

Just as it takes many peoples’ involvement, commitment, sacrifice, perseverance, and more when it comes to maintaining the vitality of our respective parishes, the same is true for our family of parishes, our diocese. When it was founded in 1946 in the 11 counties of southwest Wisconsin covering over 8,000 square miles, the diocese had 82,000 Catholics. Now it has 277,000. It had 122 active priests; now there are 96.

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John Huebscher

Some ways budget can help parents choose life

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

Budgets are mostly about numbers. Numbers of taxes collected and numbers of dollars spent. But budgets are also fundamentally about people and the priorities of the community. In ways large and small, budgets can affirm values and arrange laws and policies in ways that favor personal choices.

Budgets are generally not the place to settle questions like whether abortion should be legal. But individual budget items can encourage or discourage women who are facing the choice of whether to carry a pregnancy to term and give life to the child they carry.

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Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Making truthful choices of conscience

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

One recurrent theme in bioethical discussions is the idea that each of us possesses a basic awareness of the moral law. This distinctly human faculty, which Western culture has referred to as “conscience,” helps us to choose correctly when confronted with basic moral decisions.

Even children, when taught about right and wrong, instinctively seem to recognize a law higher than themselves. Deep within his conscience man discovers that law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Conscience has been aptly described as man’s most secret core and his sanctuary.

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Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer

In Good Friday times, a response from the heart

Propagation of Faith by Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer

Life is filled with challenges. In these days, especially, our own reality may seem like an endless Good Friday, as we face perhaps the serious illness of someone we love, or maybe job loss and financial difficulties, or simply the trials of daily living.

For the poor in a remote area of northern Zambia, life too could appear a never-ending stream of hardships. They live in an isolated area, nine hours from the nearest town, a distance marked by mountains and dangerous cliffs.

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Fr. Donald Lange

God’s mercy renews us to live Easter love

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes by Fr. Donald Lange column logo

Lent, Easter, and the Jubilee Year of St. Paul invite us to receive God’s mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation. God offers us these healing gifts to renew us to live our vocation of Christ-like love when we sin and lose the Way of Jesus.

In Genesis 1:27 it says, “God created man in his image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female, He created them.” In 1 John 4:8 it states, “for God is love.” Since God is love, we image God best when we truly love. But the sin of Adam and Eve wounded our ability to love. Consequently, we commit sins which enslave us and weaken our love ability.

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Susanna Herro

Collection: Hope for ‘living stones’

Christians in the Holy Land are called “living stones” because they are the living Church, celebrating their faith in the parishes and shrines of the Holy Land.

Recognizing the great needs of these people, Pope Benedict XVI, who will be visiting the Holy Land in May, directs that the Good Friday special collection support Christians in the Holy Land, as well as preserve holy sites.

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Sr. Margie Lavonis

Our world needs the Easter message

Recently I have done some reflection on how I would relate the message of Christ’s death and resurrection to the world situation, particularly here in the United States.

Guest Column

Christ’s death and resurrection assures us that God has conquered evil and that good can, and does, come out of suffering.

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Msgr. Daniel Ganshert

Our oneness in the Eucharist

Living and Learning column by Msgr. Daniel T. Ganshert

What a great learning experience was provided as we watched the events in Rome surrounding the death of Pope John Paul II, April 2, 2005, and the subsequent election of Pope Benedict XVI.

Who would have thought that we would come to know and appreciate so much more about our Catholic faith? We joined with millions of people around the world to reflect on the truths of Christianity and the lives of Jesus’ outstanding disciples both past and present. Those were grace-filled days that we will not soon forget.

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