JANESVILLE — It’s never a dull moment when Totus Tuus comes to your parish.
For the fourth summer in a row, the Diocese of Madison is presenting the summer Catholic youth program dedicated to sharing the Gospel and promoting the Catholic faith through evangelization, catechesis, Christian witness, and Eucharistic worship.
Two teams of four college-aged leaders each are travelling to a different parish, over a six-week period, to lead programs for grade school-aged and junior high-aged children.
MADISON — The Diocese of Madison has agreed to be a host site for the 2017 New Evangelization Summit.
This exciting North American summit will take place in Ottawa, Canada, and will be live-streamed to the auditorium at the Bishop O’Connor Center on Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13.
The New Evangelization Summit will give us the opportunity to answer God’s call to renew our faith and ignite a passion in our hearts to share it with others. All the faithful are invited to attend.
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The Case for Christ is a film adaptation of Lee Strobel’s best-selling book of the same name, one that has made an enormous splash in Evangelical circles and beyond. It is the story of a young, ambitious (and atheist) reporter for the Chicago Tribune, who fell into a psychological and spiritual crisis when his wife became a Christian.
The scenes involving Lee and his spouse, which play out over many months of their married life, struck me as poignant and believable — and I say this with some authority, having worked with a number of couples in a similar situation.
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Anyone even vaguely acquainted with my work knows that I advocate vigorous argument on behalf of religious truth. I have long called for a revival in what is classically known as apologetics, the defense of the claims of faith against skeptical opponents. And I have repeatedly weighed in against a dumbed-down Catholicism.
Also, I have, for many years, emphasized the importance of beauty in service of evangelization. The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the Sainte Chapelle, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, and the Cathedral of Chartres all have an extraordinary convincing power, in many ways surpassing that of formal arguments.
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| Deacon Ralph Poyo |
MADISON — Beginning on November 1, the Diocese of Madison will be a hosting Deacon Ralph Poyo of New Evangelization Ministries for several events at local parishes.
Deacon Poyo will be inspiring and guiding us in our own journey of conversion but also helping us to assist others to encounter Jesus and our Catholic faith with new ardor, new methods and expression.
It may be unclear whether we as Catholics truly understand the meaning of the term evangelization. But it is certain that we all agree that the earliest followers of Christ were called to go out to spread the Good News of Jesus. That was in fact the first call to evangelize the world. Jesus taught his followers to be evangelizers.
But we do not live in biblical times and our recent Holy Fathers have recognized a need to reteach and engage the world with a re-proposing of the Gospel Message.
Shortly after Vatican II, Blessed Paul VI promulgated a post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation entitled, Evangelization in the Modern World. This document gave the Church the foundation and principles of evangelization that informs our current understanding.
St. John Paul II continued this work and coined the phrase “The New Evangelization.” He began to define what that phrase means and a vision for this New Evangelization.
BERLIN — The National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) has published a “We Are Called to Witness” program to provide ideas for implementing the New Evangelization in parishes and families.
Downloadable from the Madison Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (MDCCW) website (www.mdccw.com/pdfs/new_evangelization.pdf), the program can be used throughout the year and includes ideas for religious holidays and family gatherings.
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| Dr. Ralph Martin gives a talk on “Mercy and Mission: Living as a Catholic in Challenging Times” on April 20 at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center in Madison — part of the semi-annual St. Thérèse of Lisieux Lecture Series. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
MADISON — “Seventeen hundred years of Christian culture is collapsing before our eyes,” Dr. Ralph Martin warned in his talk, “Mercy and Mission: Living as a Catholic in Challenging Times.”
Dr. Martin was the guest speaker for the semi-annual St. Thérèse of Lisieux Lecture at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center in Madison on April 20.
He is president of Renewal Ministries and an associate professor of theology and director of Graduate Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit.
He is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which are The Urgency of the New Evangelization: Answering the Call; The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints; and ed? What Vatican II Actually Teaches Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization.
“We’re living in something like a big apostasy, whether it’s the [Great] apostasy or not, I don’t know,” he added. He cited the decreasing numbers in Mass attendance, vocations to the priesthood and Religious Life, and Baptisms and other sacramental practices.
The “Great Apostasy” Dr. Martin referenced is one of the events St. Paul said has to happen before Christ comes again — a “a turning away of the faith on the part of those who once had faith.”
Another event is a time of unrestrained evil and lawlessness.
MADISON — Dr. Ralph Martin will present the next St. Thérèse Lecture on Wednesday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Bishop O’Connor Center. His topic will be “Mercy and Mission: Living as a Catholic in Challenging Times.”
This special lecture during the Year of Mercy will help all the faithful enter more deeply into their understanding of mercy and their call to mission and to bring mercy into their daily lives.
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Just a few days ago, I had the enormous privilege of performing my first Confirmation as a bishop.
It took place at Holy Cross Parish in Moor Park, Calif., a large, bustling, and bi-lingual parish in my pastoral region. I told the confirmandi — and I meant it — that I would keep them in my heart for the rest of my life, for we were connected by an unbreakable bond.
In preparation for this moment, I was, of course, obliged to craft a homily, and that exercise compelled me to do some serious studying and praying around the meaning of this great sacrament.
It is sometimes said that Confirmation is a sacrament in search of a theology. It is indeed true that most Catholics could probably give at least a decent account of the significance of Baptism, Eucharist, Confession, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick, but they might balk when asked to explain the meaning of Confirmation.
These days, people get their news from many sources. Much of what we read and hear is biased opinions, conjecture, or hearsay. It may be difficult to get to the truth of a matter.
When it comes to news about the Catholic Church and its teachings, Catholics also need sources that they can trust. That’s why the Catholic press is more important than ever today.
