Columns – Page 72 – Madison Catholic Herald

Excavating my desk recently, I found the program notes from a Tallis Scholars concert my wife and I had attended a few months ago.

The Tallis Scholars are a marvelous a capella ensemble, but most of their music that night was rather too minimalist for my tastes. In any event, the author of the program notes described Arvo Pärt’s I am the true vine and its “qualities of stasis and timelessness,” as reminiscent of what “former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has described as ‘silently waiting on the truth, pure sitting and breathing in the presence of the question mark’.”

Changes in Harvard’s crest

Which put me in mind of an old joke that used to circulate in the editorial offices of First Things. Harvard University’s crest, it seems, used to read Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae [Truth for Christ and the Church].

Christ and the Church were jettisoned over a hundred years ago; the crest now reads, simply, Veritas.

On March 31, 2016

Tony Magliano

What we can do to help end Christian genocide

For many of us who strive to seriously practice faith in Jesus Christ, and to extend that practice out into the marketplace, the political square, and society at large, persecution rarely means more than being ridiculed, verbally harassed, and to a certain degree socially and politically marginalized.

But for so many other Christians throughout the world who courageously refuse to deny Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior — with all that means — persecution means torture, rape, enslavement, and death.

Global war on Christians

In his well-researched book, The Global War on Christians, Catholic journalist John Allen, cites studies that indicate the number of Christians killed for the faith every year ranges from 7,300 to 100,000 worldwide.

On March 31, 2016

Jean Mueller

Having an ‘adult’ conversation with a parent

I suddenly feel as though I cannot communicate with my father.

Our conversations have become more like a parent-child check-in rather than a pleasant visit. What I mean by that is I feel as though I am taking on a more parental role in our relationship.

My dad lives alone and has some chronic health conditions but nothing too serious. Lately my visits have become focused on whether or not he took his medications, or if he has eaten, or when he last did.

I want dad to be safe and happy but I don’t want to be the person drawing attention to all of the things he is not doing to care for himself.

Is this typical of aging parents? I have no siblings and most of my other relatives live far away.

(From a daughter in Baraboo.)

On March 24, 2016

Fr. Donald Lange

Easter invites us to share our faith with joy

Greta Weissman, a […]

On March 17, 2016

Fr. Donald Lange

St. Joseph was an instrument of God’s mercy

A friend sent me a Christmas card that he proudly created. It featured a picture of Mary lovingly holding the infant Jesus. Under the picture were the words, “Who is Missing?”

The answer is St. Joseph, who as the head of the Holy Family, was there to support Mary as she gave birth to Jesus on Christmas. We honor him as a great saint because he was the foster father of Jesus who with Mary guided young Jesus as he grew in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

Role as protector

Joseph exercised his role as protector of Mary and Jesus discreetly, humbly, and silently. He did so with an unfailing presence and fidelity, even when he found it difficult and confusing.

On March 17, 2016

Morgan Smith

The beauty of striving


	Morgan Smith

On a recent trip to Florida, I went kayaking in a nature preserve. I started in the Gulf of Mexico and followed the shoreline into a creek that wove and curved through a forest of banyan trees.

Banyan trees are so mysterious. Their roots rise up out of the ground and intertwine to make the trunk and roots shoot out of the branches and reach toward the ground — actually, I cannot tell exactly where the roots are originating from as they flow together in a beautiful and tangled mess.

On March 9, 2016

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Encountering God through Mass in Extraordinary Form

The seventh and last in a series by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf about the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

In this series we drilled into what’s up with Bishop Robert C. Morlino celebrating Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, especially when he celebrates “at the Throne.”

We have looked into what his “throne” is, the symbolic meaning of vestments, gestures, levels of solemnity, Latin. Let’s wrap this up, since by now you pretty much know “what that’s all about.”

On March 9, 2016May 20, 2021

Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Human organs from pigs: Is it kosher?

Human beings can have a visceral reaction to the thought of growing human kidneys or livers inside the bodies of pigs or cows.

A participant in a recent online forum on human/animal chimeras described it this way: “Unbelievable!!! . . . If there was anything that was more anti-God it is the genetic formation of chimeras which is nothing more than Frankenstein monster creation.”

Evaluating the practice

Although the idea of a chimeric animal is indeed unusual, several factors need to be considered in evaluating the practice of growing human organs within animals.

On March 9, 2016

Bishop Robert Barron

Blasting holes through the buffered self

Last week, during the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, I had the enormous privilege of sharing a breakfast with Fr. Robert Spitzer, the inter-galactically smart Jesuit, who once served as president of Gonzaga University and who now directs the Magis Center on matters of faith, reason, and science.

I had just finished Spitzer’s latest book entitled The Soul’s Upward Yearning and delighted in discussing it in some detail with him.

The ‘buffered self’

This text is, in my judgment, the best challenge to what the philosopher Charles Taylor calls the “buffered self,” that is to say, a self isolated from any sense of the transcendent.

On March 2, 2016

Fr. Greg Ihm

Who will fill these shoes?


	Fr. Greg Ihm

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

There is a story that comes out of the Archdiocese of Chicago that asks a profound question. It is a story of a monsignor.

At his last weekend before retirement, he placed his shoes at the foot of the altar and after a long pause looked out and asked: “Who is going to fill these shoes now?”

This is a question that has been placed before us as a diocese as we have lost both Msgr. Monte Robinson and Fr. Larry Bowens within a week of each other.

In the past three years, we have also lost Fr. John Auby, Fr. Michael Richel, and Msgr. Felix Oehrlein, who were pastors at the time of their death.