We all need mothers. Obviously we wouldn’t be here if our mothers didn’t give us life. Yet, as we look forward to Mother’s Day on this Sunday, May 13, I think we need to examine what our society is doing to encourage and support mothers and mothers-to-be.
Category: Editorial
Recall rules: Issues involved in Wisconsin’s first statewide recall primary
On Tuesday, May 8, Wisconsin will be experiencing its first statewide recall primary. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, the recall election is happening and state citizens should be paying attention.
Faithful citizenship resources
The Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) encourages Catholic voters to visit its Faithful Citizenship voter education page for resources on Catholic teaching (www.wisconsincatholic.org/faithful_citizenship.cfm).
There you will find a letter from the bishops of Wisconsin written prior to the 2010 elections. In that letter, the bishops admit that “being a faithful citizen is never easy.” Yet, they encourage Catholics to “remain engaged, not just politically but also culturally,” since there is “so much good that we will contribute to our nation and to our world.”
The WCC Web site also includes the latest edition of its Guidelines for Church Involvement in Electoral Politics as well as a question card voters can use when questioning candidates running for state office.
Information for state voters
Also helpful is information provided by the state’s Government Accountability Board (GAB), which issued a press release with information for state voters about the primary recall rules (http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/recall).
Remember the poor: Catholic bishops call for ‘circle of protection’
An elderly woman lives on a very tight fixed income. She depends on food stamps to provide enough food so that she can pay for her rent and medical expenses.
A married man with four children loses his job. His unemployment compensation has run out and he relies on receiving government help for rental assistance and buying food for his family.
These are real situations facing real people. In fact, recent statistics show that one in two Americans are living at or near the poverty level. That means up to 50 million Americans are poor, the highest number since the Census Bureau began tracking poverty rates in 1959.
But despite the growing numbers of poor people — many of them formerly considered “middle class” — we aren’t hearing much about poverty in the current political campaign. It seems to be an issue that everyone is avoiding like the plague.
Everyone except the U.S. Catholic bishops, that is.
Growing relationships: Farmers and consumers are finding new ways to connect
When I was growing up, my dad (a teacher who had summers off) always planted a large vegetable garden.
As his tomatoes, beets, carrots, and other vegetables multiplied, he would often take pails of produce around the neighborhood as gifts to other families. I helped with planting and weeding, although my main role was taking care of the flowers decorating the garden.
Enjoyment of gardening
Ever since then, I’ve always enjoyed gardening. Being outdoors with the smell of dirt (to me it smells good) and the bees buzzing gives me a sense of calm and peace.
When our children were young, we, too, had a vegetable garden. However, it got to be too much work to keep up with the weeding and harvesting — plus two of our neighbors had gardens and liked to share their produce with us. We decided to give up the vegetables, but we still have flowers and maintain our fairly large yard.
Forget the Church? It’s not the way to truly follow Jesus
A recent cover story in Newsweek magazine proclaimed, “Forget the Church: Follow Jesus.” This issue contained a story by Andrew Sullivan that in essence claimed that Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists.
Following Jesus: Holy Week reminds us to protect the Holy Land
Starting with Palm Sunday, Catholics are following in the footsteps of Jesus during the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter with the wonderful Scripture readings recounting the Passion, death, and Resurrection.
We read in all four Gospels that Jesus experienced a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He rode on a donkey, which traditionally meant he arrived in peace (those with more war-like purposes were said to ride on a horse).
How to combat violence: Holy Father has suggestions for building a better society
Violence seems to dominate the news recently in our state, nation, and world. A man shoots a young intruder hiding on his porch. A neighborhood watch vigilante kills a young man who is walking down the street. An American soldier kills civilians — including children — in Afghanistan.
What are we to make of this senseless violence? What is the world coming to and what — if anything — can we do about the violence that pervades our society?
United for religious freedom: Let’s join our bishops in standing up and praying for religious liberty
The Catholic bishops of the United States have called on all Catholics to unite in opposition to various threats to religious freedom in our country.
At a meeting of the bishops’ leaders in Washington, D.C., the bishops issued a statement on March 14 called “United for Religious Freedom.” The bishops said they are concerned not only with protecting the Church’s own institutions, but also with the care of individuals and the common good.
Bringing ‘drop-outs’ back: Everyone in the Church can make a difference
We hear these days that more people — especially young adults — are “dropping out” of organized religion. They say they are still “spiritual,” but they don’t want to belong to a particular church.
In the past, young people sometimes took time off from regular church attendance. There were those who shopped around at different churches to see what they were all about, but many of them ended up returning to the denomination of their youth.
Moral decline in past 60 years: Due to legacy of Planned Parenthood, speaker charges
During the second half of the 20th century, we experienced many positive changes in our society in the United States, including greater respect for minorities and the expansion of opportunities for women, along with advances in technology, communications, and medical care.