To the editor:
A couple of families from the Diocese of Madison will be sponsoring a life-size Nativity scene at our State Capitol, and we would like to invite others to help us make this display truly inspiring.
For the thousands of folks that will visit the Capitol with their children and grandchildren, the Nativity will remind everyone that Jesus is the reason for this special season.
To the editor:
I find it interesting that you are requesting people not to shop on Thanksgiving evening. Perhaps some of these people are working on “Black Friday” like me and are unable to shop on Friday. If they can get better value for their money by shopping early, that’s okay.
Further more, you are advocating watching football and those players are working and not spending time with their family you don’t seem to have an issue with that.
Shopping is one of my favorite pastimes. Just ask any members of my family. They know I’m ready to shop at the drop of a hat — or any object, for that matter!
But when it comes to shopping on Thanksgiving Day, it’s another story. I have been resenting the encroachment of “Black Friday” — the name given to the day after Thanksgiving — onto the holiday itself.
To the editor:
Most of us are aware that there is a dichotomy of thought in our world concerning what determines the beginning of life. But is there an awareness that there is also a dichotomy of thought in the determination of what ends life?
Did you know that the use of neurological criteria to declare “brain death” was motivated by the desire to harvest the beating heart and other vital organs for transplantation and to remove life support from patients to keep from overcrowding intensive care units of hospitals?
To the editor:
I really enjoyed the article about the VetsRoll very much. Mark and John Finnegan, with their mother Barbara present, received the Governor’s Certification of Appreciation for their great work at the November 7 annual Veterans Day Ceremony at the State Capitol in Madison.
To the editor:
The front page story of the October 30 issue really inspired me. These three children ages 14, 17, and 13 who are organists are just amazing.
How sad it was to hear of the death of Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old woman who ended her own life on November 1 using Oregon’s assisted suicide law.
Maynard suffered greatly from terminal brain cancer, and we can understand her wish to stop her pain and suffering.
However, the story of another young person who is also facing death shows, I believe, a more hopeful way to face death.
A Catholic News Service article reported on Philip Johnson, a 30-year-old Catholic seminarian in the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., who is facing the same disease as Maynard. He wrote a poignant essay in October responding to Maynard’s decision to end her own life.
Over the years, I have observed that deaths often come in threes. Three people I know often die within just a few weeks of each other. This seems to happen especially with priests.
Whether this is a true phenomenon or not, a coincidence or not — people do seem to die in threes. As a believer in the Catholic faith, I wonder if it somehow has to do with the Trinity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This past week, it happened again. Three people of significance in the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Madison died close together. They are Msgr. George Hastrich, who died on October 27; Dorothy Lepeska, who died on October 31; and Fr. George Horath, who died on November 2.
As we conclude the month of October — designated as Respect Life Month — it seems appropriate to reflect on end-of-life issues.
Doesn’t it seem that our society today pays much more attention to the beginning of life than the end of it? We get excited about the birth of a baby. We have baby showers, spend time getting the nursery decorated, and send out birth announcements when the baby is born. We buy cards and gifts for the new child.
Dear Editor,
Do you remember who said “Whatever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me?” He also said “Thou shalt not kill!” It was the same man that defined marriage as a covenant promise between one man and one woman, for better or for worse, until death do they part.
