In 2003, the Diocese of Madison had only six seminarians studying to be priests. With the number of ordinations decreasing and retirements of many active priests looming, the future didn’t look very promising.
Category: Editorial
Remembering the past: It is important to celebrate and to learn from history
Several articles in this week’s Catholic Herald made me think about the importance of history and why we should pay attention to it.
Many people today take life one day at a time. They don’t want to look back at the past or even think about the future. The here-and-now is all that counts.
The 18th century Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke said, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” By learning about previous mistakes, we can try to avoid them.
However, I’m not sure I totally agree with Edmund Burke. Not all history is bad. There are many good things that happened in the past that are worth remembering and celebrating.
God in action: Cardinal reminds us that God is at work in our time
This week I happily relinquish most of the Editorial Page to a most distinguished writer: Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.
Cardinal George writes so eloquently about the evolution of the Catholic Church as it relates to society as a whole.
He discusses particularly what has happened in the United States in more recent years, when the Church — and its faithful members — have been forced to “swim against the tide” when the government and social pressure seek to impose their “own form of morality” on us.
Shame on us! Few Wisconsin voters go to the polls for primary election
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Shame on Wisconsin voters! Approximately 12.7 percent of eligible voters turned out for the August 12 partisan primary, according to results certified by the state’s Government Accountability Board (GAB).
There were 552,342 votes cast in primaries for governor, which is 12.7 percent of Wisconsin’s 2014 voting-age population of 4,348,307, according to Census estimates.
Before I proceed, I have to confess that I am one of those citizens who did not vote in the August 12 primary. I could plead that I was too busy: I worked all day and attended the Diocese of Madison’s Lumen Christi Society event that evening.
But that is really no excuse. I could have left work to vote or even stopped by the polling place between work and the evening event.
A courageous journalist who knew the power of prayer
After hearing about the death of journalist James Foley, I learned that he was a graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Marquette’s website (www.marquette.edu) has lots of information about James Foley. Perhaps the most moving to me was a letter he wrote to Marquette after his first capture in 2011 upon returning home safely from Libya.
In that letter, Foley talks about the strength he drew not only from his own prayers, but also from the prayers of his family and friends. He tells how he and his colleague, Clare, prayed together in captivity.
Don’t miss this movie! Actor and producer put good values into When the Game Stands Tall
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At this year’s annual Catholic Media Conference held in Charlotte, N.C., those of us attending were given the opportunity to watch a new movie called When the Game Stands Tall. After viewing the movie, we also had the privilege of talking with the film’s star, Jim Caviezel, and producer, David Zelon.
The program at our conference told us a little bit about the movie. The reason it was shown at a Catholic Media Conference — besides being a great film — is that the movie tells the remarkable real-life journey of a football coach at a Catholic high school in California.
Coach Bob Ladouceur (played by Caviezel) took the De La Salle High School Spartans from obscurity to a 151-game winning streak that shattered all records for any sport. Ladouceur retired in January of 2013 after winning his last state championship in December of 2012.
The movie is based on a book of the same name by Neil Hayes, a former Chicago Sun-Times and Contra Costa Times sportswriter. The movie is scheduled to be released in theaters on August 22. I encourage everyone to see this movie.
The state of our unions: We should be concerned about marriage in our country
In cleaning my office, I came across an article I saved from a magazine published in 2007. I admit I’m a packrat, but sometimes I’m glad that I keep things that give me a historical perspective on important issues.
This article was part of a series in the AFA Journal of the American Family Association. Its title is “End of Marria%e? Indicators All Point Down.” The percentage sign (%) in the title is not a mistake, because the story points to a key fact: In October of 2006, for the first time in the history of the United States, the percentage of American households that includes a married couple had slipped into the minority.
That discouraging fact was revealed by the American Community Service, released by the U.S. Census Bureau. It showed that 49.7 percent of more than 111 million households contained a married couple. That percentage was down from the 52 percent of households with a married couple in the year 2000.
Prayer: It’s the FIRST thing we should do
Sometimes when we are facing problems and challenges in our lives, we try many alternatives to fix the problem or meet the challenge. When all our alternatives are seemingly exhausted, we finally turn to prayer.
We say to ourselves, “Well, I guess all I can do now is pray about it.” In effect, it’s our last resort.
Experiencing many tragedies
Recently our world has been experiencing many tragedies: conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians, shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in the Ukraine, Christians fleeing the city of Mosul in Iraq for fear of being killed by the Islamic State group . . . the list goes on.
In addition, many people have been killed and injured in weather-related disasters. People have been murdered in drive-by shootings and gang warfare in our own country.
What can we do in the midst of all these awful things happening around us? Pope Francis keeps reminding us to pray in the face of each disaster. But are we really listening to him and turning to prayer?
Pope shows how Church must protect children
Many years ago, I received a phone call from someone who complained that a priest had been removed from her parish because of an allegation of sexual abuse of a child. (We have had very few such cases in our diocese, thanks be to God and the vigilance of our bishops and diocesan leaders.)
The caller said to me, “He was such a wonderful priest. I can’t imagine that he would harm a child.”
Get rid of buffer zone: City of Madison should listen to the Supreme Court
On February 25 of this year, the Madison city council passed a new ordinance requiring a 160-foot “buffer zone” around any healthcare clinic in the city.
A modified version of the ordinance was passed in March, narrowing the zone to 100 feet from a medical facility’s entrance and 30 feet from its driveway.
This ordinance was proposed primarily in response to the presence of pro-life “sidewalk counselors” who have kept up a regular presence outside the Planned Parenthood Clinic on Madison’s east side for 10 years.
Supreme Court rules against buffer zones
The Madison ordinance could now be in jeopardy after the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling on June 26 that struck down buffer zones at abortion clinics. The Supreme Court decision reversed an appellate court decision upholding a 2007 Massachusetts law that made it a crime for anyone other than clinic workers to stand within 35 feet from the entrances of Planned Parenthood clinics in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, Mass.