Columns – Page 161 – Madison Catholic Herald

As we creep into the end of another year, it prompts us to consider our charitable gifting opportunities in respect to our year-end tax planning. There are many ways in which you can structure a gift to provide benefit to you personally while supporting the causes that mean the most to you. Congress has recently made it more attractive for IRA owners over 70 to do just that.

On October 3, 2008, as part of the economic recovery plan, the House joined with the Senate to approve the much awaited IRA charitable rollover plan. This allows IRA owners to make a direct gift to their parish, parish school, diocese, or other qualified diocesan institution through their required minimum distribution from an IRA. This also applies to legally binding pledges you may have made to the Church.

On October 15, 2008

Tom Nelson

Harvesting the concerns of Catholic farmers

Our diocesan Rural Life Office serves to support communities of all sizes as consumers of a constant, safe and affordable food supply, with focused emphasis in supporting the farmers and rural communities who plant, grow, and harvest the crops that feed us.

The Rural Life Office works to connect our rural parish communities to the greater diocesan Church as well as inform non-rural parish communities of the many challenges and justice issues facing those who labor to provide “our daily bread.” The success and vitality of all our communities must be measured along-side the health and sustainability of our local farmers and rural families, rural parishes, and farming communities.

On October 8, 2008May 19, 2021

Msgr. Daniel Ganshert

Understanding men and abortion

Hearing that there was a wise man who knew everything, the story is told of one who was younger and wanted to prove it. Taking the smallest from a flock in a nearby tree, he approached and said, “Tell me old man, I have a bird in my hands, is it alive or is it dead?”

The wise one looked and thought, “If I say it is alive, he will close his hands and crush the life out of it. If I say it is dead, he will open his hands and let it fly in my face.” He looked once more at the young man before him and answered his question with the words, “It is in your hands.” Life or death was in his hands.

On October 8, 2008

Susanna D. Herro, For the Catholic Herald

Respect Life: Helping men affected by abortion

Just last fall, after 34 years of legalized abortion, the first ever conference on men and abortion was held.

Scientists are discovering men’s serious grief responses to abortions. This research is closely connected to Madison and to Wisconsin. Vicki Thorn, founder of Project Rachel in Milwaukee, helped create this conference. From Madison, both Dr. Catherine Coyle and Dr. Robert Enright are cited in the information from the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

These three Wisconsin people are helping men understand their sense of loss, the erosion of trust, and the “loss of spiritual connectedness to God and to one’s partner . . .” There is a distinct concern that an abortion history makes it harder for men to trust enough to fully commit to marriage and fatherhood.

On October 2, 2008

John Huebscher

Embryonic stem cell reasoning is wrong

Recently a pro-stem cell research group, Wisconsin Stem Cell Now, published a “primer” on the subject of stem cell research in Wisconsin. Among other things, the document seeks to dismiss moral arguments against embryonic stem cell research.

In the process, the authors misrepresent the relationship between ethics and morals, equate morality with religion, and define moral argument in a way that would have disqualified some of our nation’s most significant voices for reform from public debates.

On October 2, 2008

Susanna D. Herro, For the Catholic Herald

Underlining the need for respect of all life

The power of the term, “Respect Life,” needs to be underlined in our minds. When we, in sharing our faith, share our respect for others, we are acknowledging their intrinsic worth and our belief that they are fellow humans to be loved and cherished. This message of loving respect is foundational for all our beliefs.

The other word, life, is too easily glossed over. “Life” for the new human begins when the sperm joins the egg and ends at natural death. All the stages and phases, ups and downs, challenges and soaring triumphs do not change the innate humanity of that unique person.

On October 2, 2008

Michael Lancaster, For the Catholic Herald

Planning process seeks to strengthen Catholic Schools

On Wednesday, Sept. 17, the Comprehensive Schools Study formally got underway as 26 people from around the diocese met to convene the first meeting of the steering committee. Pastors, principals, and parishioners from all corners of the diocese met to learn more about the planning process.

As the meeting began, I explained the history and background and goals of the planning process. The project stems from the directive that “All parishes, those with and without schools, will actively participate in a diocesan wide comprehensive schools study to promote and increase our diocesan commitment to Catholic education as outlined in the USCCB publication Renewing our Commitment to Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium.”

On September 25, 2008May 19, 2021

Msgr. Daniel Ganshert

Autumn reminds us of our spiritual life

Ax felled autumn is no fall at all, death only has color when entered by the living.

The bright hues of orange, yellow, and red which will festoon our trees these coming weeks make an important statement. Namely, what was there all along finally becomes visible for us to see and enjoy.

Leaves which had been green for months gradually show their true colors as the seasonal process of dying takes its course. If this process were to have been stopped by laying an ax to the tree, the leaves would simply have turned brown as the result of having been cut off from their roots, their life source.

On November 29, 1999

Bishop Robert Barron

The disorienting quality of real prayer

Editor’s note: Because of its length, this column by Bishop Robert Barron will be published in a two-part series.

One of the most impressive literary figures of the 20th century was the Irish writer Iris Murdoch. You may have heard of her surprising and thoughtful novels such as A Severed Head and The Good Apprentice; or perhaps you are conversant with her more abstract philosophical texts such as The Sovereignty of Good and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals.

She reached her greatest notoriety, posthumously, in the work of her husband John Bayley, who penned a moving memoir of his wife’s slow and emotionally wrenching descent into Alzheimer’s disease. To hear the story of one of the brightest women of her time gradually losing her mind is, to say the least, unnerving. But due to Bayley’s artful telling, the experience becomes, almost despite itself, uplifting as well.