Lent starts this week. It is a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as we prepare for Easter.
We should consider going beyond the basic requirements. What can we do to strengthen our faith during the 40 days of Lent?
Category: Editorial
Norma McCorvey proves that conversion is possible
Many people probably aren’t aware of the identity of Jane Roe in the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion.
Her real name was Norma McCorvey. Interestingly enough, she never had an abortion and later regretted her part in that decision. In fact, she worked for its overturn.
Sign letter on religious freedom
In recent years, I have written about the struggles of the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide the kind of health coverage that respects their faith and moral values.
I’ve also written about a car dealership in Minnesota that did not want to provide abortion-inducing drugs to its employees. “It has long been my conviction to run my business according to the teachings of my faith,” said Doug Erickson of Hastings Chevrolet.
Need for an executive order
These are just two instances where religious freedom has been imperiled.
One way to protect religious freedom is for President Donald Trump to sign an executive order promoting religious freedom.
Continue to welcome immigrants
In the 1970s, I remember going to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin to do a story on refugees from Vietnam who were settling in the Diocese of Madison.
One of our parishes — St. Joseph Parish in Dodgeville — helped sponsor a number of these Vietnamese refugees.
Over the years, refugees from other countries received assistance settling in our diocese through the Catholic Charities resettlement program.
Programs such as this continue throughout the United States through Catholic Charities and other religious-based agencies.
See how your faith is lived out each week
Faithful Catholics attend Mass every Sunday and hear the Word of God read and preached to them.
Our challenge as Catholics is to take that Word and live it out in our daily lives the rest of the week.
One of the ways we can see how our faith can be lived out is by reading about how it can be done.
Why service matters in Catholic schools
During my own 12 years of Catholic school education, students were encouraged to be involved in service projects at school, in our parishes, and in our communities.
I can still remember Aquinas High School students in La Crosse in 1965 sandbagging along the Mississipi River. Severe flooding had caused the river to crest at 16 feet, nearly four feet above flood stage. Many students came out to help save the community.
This license plate can help save lives
On December 7, 2016, there was a quiet announcement that few people probably noticed. But it carried some significant news that can help save lives.
On that date, the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles announced that Choose Life Wisconsin Inc. is now an authorized group for the purpose of requesting a specialty license plate.
Hand-written letters stand out
In this era of emails and texting, hand-written letters still have a powerful — maybe even stronger — impact.
As work gets underway in Congress and state legislatures, citizens are often urged to contact their elected representatives on various issues.
Catholics Confront Global Poverty
Although some of us still like to send hand-written “snail mail” letters, I thought perhaps they might be considered obsolete. Not so, says advice given by Catholics Confront Global Poverty (CCGP), an initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services.
Why Mary and peace go together
Just before Christmas, we learned of more violence in the world. In Berlin, Germany, a truck drove into a crowd of holiday shoppers at a Christmas market, killing at least 12 people and injuring as many as 50.
This attack came just hours after the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. The gunman was identified as a Turkish police officer who yelled, “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria,” after he shot Andrei G. Karlov in the back.
Nativity scene is important reminder
As I put out the Nativity scene in our home this year, I thought about the meaning of this familiar Christmas decoration.
It is actually more than a decoration, but instead is an important reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.
St. Francis’ inspiration
In looking into the history of Nativity scenes, I was reminded that the first Nativity scene supposedly appeared about 800 years ago, more than 1,200 years after the birth of Christ.