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Question: “I expect so much of myself each New Year. How do I make my resolutions last?”
Response:William McKenna, M.S., Clinical Extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services
Category: Columns
Awakening deeper faith during the Year of Consecrated Life
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Pope Francis has declared this year as the Year of Consecrated Life and you will see from his letter that he has several objectives for this year.
Among them being: thanksgiving for all the Lord has accomplished through the various Religious communities, a greater fidelity to the mission established by the founders and foundresses, and embracing the future with hope.
Diocese involved
The Diocese of Madison is looking to assist the Holy Father with these objectives by engaging the priests, Religious, and laity in various events and activities throughout the year.
We are inviting our consecrated men and women to use this year as an opportunity to highlight the many graces received through the living out of their community’s charisms throughout the history of the diocese.
We also look forward to opportunities to joining the various Religious communities in their prayer which is crucial to their identity.
Saying ‘yes’ to sex as path of love
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One of the commonest complaints against Catholicism is that it is the religion of “no,” especially in regard to the sexual dimension of life.
As the rest of the culture is moving in a progressively more permissive direction, the Church seems to represent a crabbed, puritanical negativity toward sexuality.
Different kinds of ‘no’
I think it is important, first, to make a distinction between two modalities of “no.” On the one hand, there is “no” pure and simple — a denial, a negation of something good.
Adaptation and renewal of Religious Life
Editor’s note: During this Year of Consecrated Life, this is the first in a series based on the Second Vatican Council’s document, Perfectae Caritatis (Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life) written by Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, former abbot primate of the Benedictine order who now resides in Madison.
Pope Francis has declared this year as one to be dedicated to the Life of Religious Consecration.
This is not a one-sided emphasis, since this is also the year of the Synod of Bishops which will be dedicated to the discussion of married life. It is important to see both ways of life as at the heart of the whole Church’s life and calling to witness Jesus.
Nonsense on 60 Minutes
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60 Minutes, the CBS News “magazine” that helped redefine television journalism, prides itself on challenging conventional wisdom, discomfiting the comfortable, kicking shibboleths in the shins, and opening new arguments.
No such challenge, alas, was evident in the program’s recent segment on Pope Francis.
The ‘Francis effect’
One of the principal interviewees in that piece was Robert Mickens, formerly of the London-based Tablet and currently of the National Catholic Reporter. Here’s a part of what Mickens had to say about the “Francis effect”:
Protecting unborn in a ‘throw-away culture’
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What a sight! Over 25 times from the top of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., I have seen a sea of people marching to proclaim the dignity of unborn human life and how death-dealing abortion sends the unholy message that some human beings are disposable.
As I write, I plan to march with and view that sea of people once again during the 42nd annual March for Life on January 22. It’s always a moral and spiritual shot-in-the-arm for me.
We have to do more
But good as they are, the Washington March for Life and the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco, as well as dozens of similar events at state capitols throughout the U.S., are simply not enough.
Catholic schools serve society
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This year we again celebrate our Catholic schools as “Communities of faith, knowledge, and service.”
It is always edifying to look at our Catholic schools with satisfaction and pride as we recognize the wonderful communities of faith, knowledge, and service created by each school.
During Catholic Schools Week, we acknowledge these communities, extoll their virtues, and invite others to join us as members of these communities that educate children in faith and knowledge that they might serve others and by so doing, serve God.
Issues in 2015 call us to witness to Catholic principles
Advocating for the Catholic Conference requires us to articulate the principles of Catholic social teaching in what a lawyer-friend of mine likes to call the “jury English” of everyday conversation.
Relating the Principle of Solidarity to current policy issues is one example of this.
All in this together
The Principle of Solidarity flows from the truth that human beings created in the image of a Triune God are social by nature. As a result, “we are all in this together.”
Esteeming our elders
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Occasionally we hear disturbing stories in the media about young people who perpetrate abuse against the elderly.
In a widely reported 2009 story, for example, caretakers at the Quadrangle Assisted Living facility outside Philadelphia were charged in connection with the abuse of an elderly patient named Lois McCallister. Three employees, aged 19, 21, and 22 were caught on a surveillance camera as they taunted, mocked, and assaulted the partially naked 78-year-old woman.
She had begun complaining to visiting family members several months prior that someone was hurting her and hitting her. There were also initial signs of bruising on her hand and wrist.
Problems with ‘hook-up’ culture
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From the 1950s through the late 1970s, Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II) was a professor of moral philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland, specializing in sexual ethics and what we call today “marriage and family life.”
He produced two important books touching on these matters, The Acting Person, a rigorous philosophical exploration of Christian anthropology, and Love and Responsibility, a much more accessible analysis of love, sex, and marriage.
These texts provided the foundation for the richly textured teaching of St. John Paul II that now goes by the name “theology of the body.”