Category: Around the Diocese

News from around the 11 counties of the Diocese of Madison.

On
Chris Lee

Lawsuit filed against Madison’s ‘bubble zone’ law

MADISON — On February 26, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Madison on behalf of Vigil for Life, Madison (a Pro-Life Wisconsin affiliate) and 10 other “free-speakers” who engage in a variety of leafleting, education, and sign display activities on campus and around Madison.

The suit seeks an emergency injunction against the new law, sponsored by NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin and passed unanimously by the Madison Common Council on February 25.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Food fair and farmer’s market in Reedsburg

REEDSBURG — To support local growers and to educate the public about sustainably-grown and locally produced foods, the Justice and Peace Commission of Diocesan Cluster 350 is holding its fourth annual “Food Fair and Farmers’ Market” on Saturday, March 8, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sacred Heart School Gym, corner of 6th and Willow Sts.

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On
Carolyn Averill, For the Catholic Herald

Faith is alive during Lent on UW-Madison campus

MADISON — College students are known for “pulling an all-nighter” to stay up through the night writing a paper or studying for an exam.

For Audrey Hilts, a sophomore at UW-Madison and student leader at St. Paul Catholic Center, her first all-nighter last year was a little different.

“The night before Ash Wednesday, St. Paul’s offered all-night perpetual Eucharistic Adoration — praying with the Blessed Sacrament in the middle of the night was such a powerful way to begin Lent!”

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On
Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

Pope’s Lenten message: Follow Jesus seeking out poor, sinners

Msgr. James Bartylla, vicar general of the Diocese of Madison, distributes ashes on Ash Wednesday in the chapel of the Bishop O’Connor Center, Madison. Ash Wednesday is observed on March 5 this year. (Catholic Herald file photo)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Courageously follow Jesus in seeking out the poor and sinners and in making difficult sacrifices to help and heal others, Pope Francis said in his message for Lent, which begins March 5.

Christians are called to confront the material, spiritual, and moral destitution of “our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own, and to take practical steps to alleviate it,” the pope said in his Lenten message.

Saving the world will not come about “with the right kind of human resources” and token alms, but only “through the poverty of Christ,” who emptied himself of the worldly and made the world rich with God’s love and mercy, Pope Francis said.

Focus on Christ’s poverty

The pope’s message focused on the theme of Christ’s poverty, with the title: “He became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich,” from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.

Pope Francis said he chose the passage to explore what St. Paul’s references to poverty and charity mean for Christians today.

There are many forms of poverty, he said, including the material destitution that disfigures the face of humanity and the moral destitution of being a slave to vice and sin.

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