They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So I am letting this picture inspire us to pray and support relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
In the Diocese of Madison, Bishop Robert C. Morlino has asked parishes to take up a now mandatory collection. Proceeds will be sent via the diocese to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has announced an emergency collection to assist victims of Hurricane Harvey.
It doesn’t seem possible that it has been 20 years since the death of St. Mother Teresa.
She died on September 5, 1997. I remember that year well, because Princess Diana died on August 31, just a few days before Mother Teresa.
The two were connected by more than the proximity of their deaths. They had met and Princess Diana had said that Mother Teresa inspired her to help the poor.
Perhaps one of the hardest things Jesus told us as his followers was to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).
It’s pretty tough to tolerate people we don’t like, let alone love them. But that’s what Jesus told us to do, and he certainly practiced what he preached. He even forgave those who crucified him!
Our country — and indeed our whole world — seems to be filled with racism, hatred, and violence. We all wonder how we should respond.
The official name for individuals who meet the general requirements of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is DREAMers.
However, I think we could call them dreamers in the regular sense, because they are young people who dream of staying in the United States and becoming citizens of this country.
In 2012, a policy called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — popularly known as DACA — was implemented under the Obama administration. It gave young people — mostly 15 to 30 years of age — a temporary reprieve from deportation and the authorization to be employed in our country.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness states that there are 564,708 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the U.S.: 36,907 (6.38 percent) are children, 47,725 (8.33 percent) are veterans, and 269,991 (47.6 percent) are disabled and unable to work.
Many factors can contribute to a person becoming homeless. These factors include (but are not limited to):
• Poverty
• Lack of affordable housing
• Job loss
• Lack of health care
• Mental illness
• Substance abuse
• Domestic violence
At the recent Catholics at the Capitol in Madison, we heard about the dangers of human trafficking in our state and nation.
We need to invest more of our resources to fight against labor and sex trafficking, which sadly targets many young victims.
The U.S. House of Representatives took a step in the right direction on July 12. It passed an anti-trafficking bill which would put more than $500 million over the next four years into efforts to fight labor and sex trafficking both in the U.S. and abroad.
We rejoice in the ordination of three new priests for the Diocese of Madison: Frs. Jared Holzhuter, Andrew Showers, and Luke Syse.
While we thank God for the gift of their priesthood, some of us can also take a little credit for their ordination.
Why is that? According to the annual survey of this year’s ordination class, 82 percent of the men ordained to the priesthood were encouraged by four people in their lives, including parish priests, friends, or other parishioners.
At their spring assembly held June 14-15 in Indianapolis, the U.S. Catholic bishops voted to made their ad hoc religious liberty committee a permanent committee.
In some ways, it is unfortunate that we need this committee at all. However, freedom of religion has eroded in our country as it has in many other parts of the world.
Although Catholics in the United States can worship freely in our churches and homes, the freedom to practice our religion in the public arena has been questioned and even curtailed.
Health care safety net providers are institutions that are critical in providing care and services in low-income, medically underserved, immigrant, and communities of color.
These institutions already serve a large percentage of patients who are underinsured or on Medicare. They have relied on help from the government. Yet, now Congress is considering changes to health care which could weaken that safety net.
In the aftermath of the bombing in Manchester, England, we noticed the quiet efforts of first responders to ease victims’ fears and concerns.
In so many disasters — natural and man-made — we see the heroic efforts of police, fire, and emergency medical (EMS) units. We almost take them for granted.
Yet what would we do without these first responders who offer such invaluable service? These first responders deserve our gratitude.
