St. Peter's Church, Ashton, WI - celebrates 150th anniversary

St. Peter Parish is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year and held a Mass and dinner November 5 to mark the occasion.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino came to the parish, located in rural Dane County about 10 miles outside Madison, to celebrate Mass. Concelebrants included Fr. Brian Dulli, pastor of the parish, Fr. Laverne Meier, Fr. John Meinholz, and Fr. Henry Kalscheuer.

The parish has grown considerably since it was founded by 20 families as a mission church of Cross Plains and Martinsville. It currently has over 300 registered families.

“Many other people have been positively impacted by the Holy Spirit’s generous outpouring in Ashton,” said Father Dulli in his homily during the Saturday evening Mass which packed the church’s pews.

continue at MadCatHerald

more photos at madisoncatholicherald.smugmug.com

MJS: How are Wisconsin faith communities confronting the issue of pornography?

I am writing a story on how Wisconsin faith communities are confronting the issue of pornography. If you wish to contribute, please contact me at anjohnson@jrn.com. Please leave a daytime telephone number.

Remember, you can follow the Journal Sentinel's FaithWatch feature at:

www.twitter.com/jsfaithwatch
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MJS Faith Watch

Great question!  I don't know of any effort of Catholics in Wisconsin.  Anyone know of one? 

You might remember Green Bay Packer defensive end Ryan Pickett supported the cause leading up to last year's Super Bowl victory.

Reminder, it's not too late to sponsor “Mary’s Ultrasound” billboards

Last year’s “Mary’s Ultrasound” billboards were a huge success, in communities across Wisconsin. Viewers in Milwaukee, Green Bay, La Crosse and beyond were touched by a simple image of the preborn Christ Child. The pro-life effort raised the ire of the former president of Catholics for Choice, Frances Kissling, who wrote about the billboards in the Washington Post.

Kissling even referred to Pro-Life Wisconsin as the “grinches that stole Christmas!”

But in order to touch hearts across Wisconsin – and the United States, even! – we need your help.

True to Life funds are dangerously low, and without your help, we won’t be able to undertake the “Mary’s Ultrasound” billboard effort this year.

A $500 donation will pay for a billboard in La Crosse. A $500 donation will pay for a billboard in Milwaukee.

Please help us today! Click here to donate online, or call our office at (262) 796-1111 ext. 10.

FatherZ: Pontifical TLM in … Miami? Miami!

I learn about this here.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami will be celebrate a Pontifical High Mass at Miami’s Church of the Epiphany (7:30pm) on 2 February 2012, Feast of the Presentation.

This will be the first time in over 40 years that a bishop has celebrated a Pontifical High Mass, according to the Missal of 1962, in the State of Florida. The Mass is part of a symposium jointly sponsored by both Nova Southeastern University and Church Music Association of America.

The symposium is titled “Gregorian Chant and Modern Composition for the Catholic Liturgy: Charles Tournemire’s ‘L’Orgue Mystique’ as Guide ” The Mass will feature the French composer and organist’s compositions for the Feast of the Presentation.

For more information about the Symposium, see here.

FatherZ

Of course in this state, Bishop Morlino has celebrated the Traditional Mass....  I'm not sure if he has celebrated a Pontifical Mass though?  Perhaps Madison Cathedral folks could fill us in.  I know there is at least one bishop in Minnesota celebrating the Traditional Mass but he as of yet has not celebrated a Pontifical Mass.  As far as I know, Cardinal Burke has never said the Traditional Mass in the state of Wisconsin(at least publicly)...  It seems like that should be a trivia question considering how many other states and countries he has Pontifical-ed in. 

Milwaukee's St. Josaphat Basilica launches $700k campaign for upcoming projects

St. Josaphat Milwaukee

The St. Josaphat Basilica Foundation, which has raised $10 million for its renovations over the last 20 years, has embarked on a new, $700,000 campaign to fund a number of upcoming projects and build up its reserves.

The projects include interior and exterior lighting, masonry and stained glass repairs and a new sound system, said foundation Executive Director Susan Rabe.

Built by Polish immigrants between 1896 and 1901, the Basilica -- one of only three in the United States at the time -- is considered a cultural and historic landmark in Milwaukee.

“People come here from around the world,” said the foundation’s executive director Susan Rabe, who took on the post in 2009.

The new campaign has already received a $50,000 gift from the We Energy Foundation.

In addition to covering maintenance and repair costs, the campaign drive is intended to reinvigorate the foundation's annual giving, which has slipped over the past five years from $300,000 to $400,000 annually, to about $125,000, according to Rabe.

MJS - Annysa Johnson

A Wisconsin saint's resting place

More about Sr. Adele Brise.

10 Best Beer States of 2011

7. Wisconsin
Number of breweries: 72
Capita per brewery: 78,986
Production in 2010: 4.8 million barrels
Consumed per capita in 2010: 26.3 gallons

The state roots on a first-place team named the Brewers, was the birthplace of iconic brands such as Pabst and is still home to not only the Miller cooling caves, museum and brewing facility, but MillerCoors' division offices. Combine that with a growing and increasingly vocal craft beer community and you have a state that's been a beer state since before the great-grandparents of University of Wisconsin freshmen were born.

Wisconsin residents drink the fifth-most beer per person in the U.S. and have the ninth-best ratio of residents per brewer in the country. Their commitment to Old World-style brewing is so great that Sprecher Brewing still adheres to the original German formulas, New Glarus brews in a facility that looks like an Alpine lodge nestled in the predominantly Swiss town of the same name and Miller still keeps Leinenkugel's "Leinie Lodge" facility intact after buying the brewer 23 years ago.

Why isn't Wisconsin ranked higher, then? Partly because of production that doesn't even crack the Top 10, but partly because of legislation passed this summer that protects Miller from A-B InBev encroachment that combines the brewer's permit and wholesale and retail licenses given out by municipalities into a single permit under state control and prohibits brewers from buying wholesale distributors. That's great for Miller, but just made life a whole lot more difficult for the more than 70 brewers in the state that aren't Miller who now have a much more difficult path to getting licenses and getting their product on shelves.

Wisconsin's total beer output grew only 0.2% during the past decade. Making life harder for most of your brewers for the sake of one doesn't seem like the best way to create growth.

continue to Main Street to see the whole list

Milwaukee abortion workers dance in street after botched abortion

via Pro-Life Wisconsin

This past Friday, October 21, an ambulance rolled up to Affiliated Medical Services to take away yet another woman to a nearby hospital after a botched abortion. Abortionist Bernie Smith was reportedly on duty.

AMS staff can be seen laughing, dancing and doing the limbo as the woman was taken away. One AMS staffer even threatened vigilers, saying, “You’re lucky it isn’t you in the hospital.”

AMS’s consent forms (available publicly on their website, snippet below)  state, in part, “Complications, including death, may occur.”

Those who lobby for abortion’s legality claim that if abortion were made illegal, women would have to resort to dirty, back-alley abortions. But the reverse has actually happened — as was sadly illustrated with Kermit Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” abortuary in Philadelphia, the dirty, back-alley abortions are legal and no one is watching.

This is at least the third time this year an ambulance has arrived at AMS after a botched abortion; sidewalk counselors recorded two separate ambulance visits on April 8. Abortion facilities in Milwaukee are not subject to health inspections. Some days the smell of death — blood and flesh — can be smelled wafting out of AMS when the staff open the doors.

AMS has been the site of 40 Days for Life for three years now. Sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors are present at AMS year-round as well. 40 Days vigilers were in front of AMS when this occurred.

Women have been taken to Columbia St. Mary’s after botched abortions, forcing a Catholic hospital and staff to clean up the abortionist’s mess.

Campos-Duffy: Mom of eight explains why she shouldn’t have any kids

Brave or foolish? My six kids and I leave our home and visit the House.

In her excellent blog, “Why I never should have had eight children”, Leila Miller gives a spot on depiction of both the scorn and the sainting mothers of big families face from a culture that is utterly confused by why any sane woman in an age of readily available birth control would put herself through such a needless ordeal.

There are the nosey environmentalists who disapprovingly count my carbon footprints as they spill out of my minivan at the mall. And how many times have well-intentioned friends asked me if I think it’s “fair” on the children I already have to have another baby? And yet, how many times have my husband and I looked at each other across the room, six pleading, whining, crying children between us, and wondered how we got here, what have we done, and what would social services think if they walked in at that moment.

continue at Catholic Vote

Sean Duffy's seat is up for re-election in 2012. 

Greenville WI parish dedicates memorial for babies lost to miscarriage

Sept 11, 2011, the St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish, in Greenville, WI dedicated their Miscarriage Memorial. The Memorial lists the names and dates of children who have died before birth, and provides families a place to remember and mourn. There are also plots available to bury the remains of infants who are lost later in pregnancy. By providing this burial location for children who die before birth, we acknowledge that they are not medical waste, but human beings deserving of dignity and respect. As Catholics we believe that all people are deserving of life from conception to natural death, and this Memorial affirms this belief.

details at Pro-Life Wisconsin

TheCompass: Suamico family hosts ninth annual outdoor rosary

SUAMICO — When the calendar turns to October, it's family rosary time on the Kontny estate. However, this is not your everyday family rosary. For nearly a decade, Hank and Monica Kontny have hosted a candlelit living rosary on their four acres on the west side of Green Bay for several hundred people.

"It came out of my deep love for our Lady," noted Monica. "I just wanted to do something special."

As she reminisced about that first rosary nine years ago, she recalled that they barely had enough people to make the 50 beads that form this living rosary. This year's event, held on the first Saturday of the month, saw enough people to pray all 20 decades (the traditional 15, plus the five luminous mysteries).

Deacon Bob Ellis of Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Green Bay served as the night's unofficial master of ceremonies. He began by leading the crowd with the singing of "Ave Maria" as the Knights of Columbus in full regalia led a Marian procession into the center of the crowd. They were followed by the Little Flower Society of St. Thèrése, which consisted of young girls dressed in white first Communion dresses. As they processed across the lawn, the girls tossed rose petals to the ground in preparation for the arrival of the statue of the Blessed Mother.

"Nights like this are important because it's a public display of faith," Deacon Ellis told The Compass. "Mrs. Kontny invites everyone and it gets everyone turning to God and praying."

continue at The Compass

Green Bay Packers offer game-day support to charities

» The Midwest Shrine game, in which the Packers present a donation to the Shrine Tripoli Temple, which operates Shriners Hospitals for Children, during a preseason game. The team has donated more than $3 million.

» Bishop's Charities game, a donation is made to the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay during a preseason game. About $3.5 million has been donated.

» Coats for Kids. The Packers host a Salvation Army Coats for Kids collection prior to a regular-season game. About 2,775 coats have been donated in the past decade.

» Breast Cancer Awareness Month recognition. The team dons various pieces of pink equipment, and pink ribbons and towels are handed out to fans in recognition of the month.

» Concession stand efforts. Area nonprofit groups volunteer their time to staff concession stands for home games. Donations totaling more than $780,000 were given to 70 nonprofits during the 2010 season.

» Sargento Touchdowns for Charity. For nine years, the company has donated funds for touchdowns scored during home games, raising more than $675,000 for Wisconsin food charities.

more at GB Press Gazette 

Anybody else think it's funny the two largest charities are Catholics and Freemasons?

Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Milwaukee, WI

Found some pictures

Found these on a site called historic-structures.com

There's no dates or further information.  I would think these were probably pulled from some other repository of photos and slapped in this website.  Not sure of their origin. 

FYI, this church is now named Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

New poll question: Favorite Wisconsin based sports team

It's also over on the right bar over there.  Although my wife sometimes argues with me, my pick is the Milwaukee Brewers as my favorite sports team.  Especially these Brewers, everything about this team makes me love baseball despite the ridiculous corporate structure of the MLB(as opposed to the brilliant setup of the NFL).  The Brewers overcame some terrible ownership, and have been saved by LA businessman Mark Attanasio, who had his father sing the national anthem for game 1 of the playoffs(who also sings the anthem at every opening game).  And not just the team, but two words which makes a world of difference; Bob Uecker.  The team is sooo Milwaukee and sooo Wisconsin.  Don't get me wrong, I love watching the other Wisconsin teams(well I don't watch the NBA...), but the question is who's number 1.   Ask me in a couple years and maybe I will have changed my mind..  I think it will be interesting to see the results on this one.  By the way, the staches win on the previous poll.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Results

Photo

Karlen: How Braunie, the Prince, Axeman, T-Plush and Brew Crew Ball salvaged my summer from hell

A title like that, I suppose, merits prose better than what you're about to read. Nevertheless, I hope you'll tolerate this very personal reflection on this season.

I told my wife last night that I suspect a guy's favorite season of baseball should take place when he's 10 or 12 years old rather than 27. But regardless of how this season ends--with a World Series title, an ugly sweep at the hands of the D-Backs, or anything in between--I had more fun this year than I ever have watching baseball.

In the first year of our marriage, my wife and I were blessed to have a little boy. We deeply desired a large family, but the last few years we've struggled with infertility and in 2010 the miscarriage of our second child. On Father's Day this year, we were delightfully shocked to find out we were expecting again. Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better.

We were thrilled to go to our first ultrasound. I still remember my son's first ultrasound. For a bewildered 22-year-old, seeing that tiny heart beating away was probably even more powerful and awe-inspiring than the birth. But that July morning, there was no heartbeat. We were told to expect to miscarry a second time within a week. And so began my month-and-a-half long odyssey through the bowels of hell.

continue at Brew Crew Ball

After you finish reading this great article by Steve Karlen, check out Fox 6 who did an interview with the Karlens regarding the article.

St. Paul's Catholic Center promo video

St. Pauls promo video from Backflip Films on Vimeo.

This is a video we did for St. Paul's University Catholic Center located in Madison WI.

CatholicSpirt: La Crosse Guadalupe Shrine "A sanctuary for the soul"

From left, Caroline and Anna Priore of
St. Pius V in Cannon Falls pray at the shrine.
Julie Carroll / The Catholic Spirit

Two busloads of teens from St. Pius V in Cannon Falls pulled into the parking lot of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wis., the morning of Sept. 11.

The sun lit up the beautiful structures and gardens nestled in the blufflands of western Wisconsin.

After their three-hour ride, the 51 seventh- through 12th-graders were antsy to get out and climb the paved path leading to the church, the shrine’s crown jewel.

The peaceful and prayerful atmosphere of the place turned their high energy into serious reflection, as the youth marveled at the scenery before them.

“It’s really beautiful,” said Anna Priore, a home-schooled high school senior who came with her sister, Caroline, a junior. “I knew something nice was going to happen,” she said on the ride home.

One of the pleasant surprises of her visit came when she learned of an altar inside the church containing a relic of her confirmation saint, Maria Goretti. “There was a beautiful painting of her, too,” Anna said. “It almost moved me to tears.”

The experience had a similar impact on Caroline, who said it confirmed her desire to be a nun someday. She watched a video on the bus ride down that mentioned a collection to build a home for contemplative sisters.

“It’s the perfect place [for such a home],” Caroline said. “I’ve always felt like I’d like to join a convent someday. . . .”

Such anecdotes are music to the ears of trip organizer Debbie Bauer, who runs the faith formation program for youth at the parish. And, no doubt, she will pass along the stories to the anonymous donor who covered the cost of the bus ride for the youth.

During a parish staff meeting, Bauer said, “we were concentrating on the Blessed Mother, and the doorbell rang. I went to the door and there was a gentleman who goes to Mass here. He gave me a check for $2,000 and said, ‘You get coach buses and you take the faith formation kids down to Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine.’

“It was holy goosebump time,” she added.

continue at The Catholic Spirit (which also happens to be the best diocesan paper I have encountered).

WAOW9: Walking for life in Wausau

The nationwide movement 40 Days for Life kicked off Wednesday. The group's Wausau-based chapter will be walking and praying outside the Family Planning and Health Services location on Third Avenue until November.

Cathy Stephan spent an hour on Wednesday afternoon walking along the sidewalk, praying the rosary. "It's more a prayer vigil, it's not a protest," she said.

According to the group's website, 40 Days for Life is committed to finding peaceful ways to end abortion. Stephan said the local group believes the same. "We're catholic so we pray rosaries and we're asking God to help save the lives of unborn children who might be at risk today from abortion."

Stephan said she and other members of the group will walk for hours, back and forth in front of Family Planning for the next 40 days. People in cities across the United States will also be doing the same. 

continue at WAOW

Wis. Rapids Halloween Cemetary Prayer Vigil

6th Annual Halloween Cemetery Prayer Vigil
Monday, October 31, 2011, 8:00 PM
Calvary Cemetery, Highway 54 East, Wisconsin Rapids

Come and Pray with Father Tim Welles and The Knights of Columbus Honor Guard

The evening will include:
• Evening Prayer, Litany of the Saints, Night Prayer
• Exposition, Eucharistic Procession, Benediction
• Campfire

(Dress appropriately for the weather, bring your own flashlight or candle and if you plan to stay late, also bring your own lawn chair, hot cocoa and snacks.)

Sponsored by the Marian Center for Peace
Mother of America Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel
715-424-MARY / info@mariancenterforpeace.org / www.mariancenterforpeace.org

 Cool idea!

A theological exegesis on the Beatific Vision

A Bavarian beer tent

Polka Friday style!!!
*A re-post from last year.  Something about this time of year and being German.  La Crosse celebrates Oktoberfest by drinking beer from a company called Anheuser–Busch InBev.  I wish I didn't have to go back down to training so I could complain more.  Waaait for it...

In heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're gone from here
All our friends will be drinking all the beer!(Everybody sing!)


In heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're gone from here
All our friends will be drinking all the beer!


Lá lá lá lá lá lá
Lá lá lá lá lá lá
Lá lá lá lá lá lá
Lá lá lá lá lá lá lá lá



Refrain:
Im Himmel gibt's kein Bier,
Drum trinken wir es hier.
Denn sind wir nicht mehr hier,
Dann trinken die andern unser Bier.

Sicher muß der Wein vom Rhein etwas Wunderbares sein.
Sicher ist ein feiner Sekt etwas, was besonders schmeckt.
Sicher ist der Schnaps so scharf, daß man einen heben darf.
Aber heut' seid's gescheit, liebe Leut'.
Refrain:

2. Jeder Mensch hat seinen Tick und seine Eigenart.
Eine fliegt auf glatt rasiert, die and're auf den Bart.
Einer möcht' nur Fußballspiel, dem andern ist das Wurst.
Ich allein gesteh' es ein, ich hab' immer einen Durst.
Refrain:

Note: This video is quite Beardly btw.

Happy Oktoberfest!  Celebrate by NOT going to a Polka Mass.