News Briefs: Marriage Encounter weekend scheduled MADISON -- Madison Marriage Encounter is hosting a weekend at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center Nov. 30-Dec. 2. This is an opportunity for married couples to sincerely consider the most important area of their lives -- their marriage. A weekend away from home and the distractions and tensions of everyday life provides time to become reacquainted and to learn or re-learn how to talk to and listen to each other. For details, call Anita at 608-846-7048 or Rachel at 608-821-3175. Registrations are limited. Beginning Experience weekend MADISON -- If you have experienced divorce, death of a spouse, or loss of a relationship and believe that life must begin again, Beginning Experience may be for you. The weekend offers you time to reflect and get in touch with yourself and God so you can move on to the future with renewed hope. Trained team members, who themselves are widowed, divorced, or separated, give personal presentations. There is also small group sharing. A Beginning Experience weekend will be held Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center. For a brochure and application form or for more information, call Paul at 608-862-3613 or Roxanne at 920-739-8991. 'Gift of Faith' for singles Dec. 8 MADISON -- "A Time For Me" is a four part series designed to give singles (never married, divorced, separated, widowed) a "time out" for themselves, a morning away from it all four times this year. Part four, "The Gift of Faith," will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8, at the Bishop O'Connor Pastoral Center here from 9:30 a.m. to noon; lunch will follow. Participants will look at what forms the basis of their faith in God and share with others how that faith directs their lives. Singles of all ages are invited to participate in the series. The cost is $10 for the morning session; $15 for the morning session and lunch. For more information about this session, contact the Office of Family Ministry at 608-821-3175. Pre-registration is necessary. Registration for part four will be accepted until Dec. 3. Diocesan celebration for 50th anniversaries MADISON -- A 50th wedding celebration Mass will take place Sunday, April 7, at 2 p.m. at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center. Pastors throughout the Diocese of Madison will be receiving letters asking them to submit the names of those couples celebrating their 50th wedding anniversaries during the year 2002. Couples must go through their parish in order to participate in the April 7th diocesan-wide celebration. Each participating couple will receive a certificate from the bishop at the April 7th Mass. Following will be a wedding cake and coffee/ punch reception in the dining room. There is ample parking at the O'Connor Center, which is also handicapped-accessible. Advent retreat SINSINAWA -- Sinsinawa Mound will host an Advent retreat led by Sr. Martha Alken on "beating our own swords into plowshares." The retreat begins Friday, Nov. 30, at 7:30 p.m. and ends Sunday, Dec. 2, at 1 p.m. There is a $150 private room fee or a $104 commuter fee. To register for the event, call 608-748-4411 or visit the Sinsinawa Dominican website at www.sinsinawa.org.

Deacons:

MADISON -- Bishop William H. Bullock of Madison has announced that Michael Moon and David Wanish will be ordained to the transitional diaconate for the Diocese of Madison on Friday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m.

The ordination will take place at the Bishop O'Donnell Holy Name Memorial Chapel at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center in Madison.

Bullock will ordain the two deacons. Priests of the diocese will concelebrate the Mass.

Tait Schroeder was also ordained to the transitional diaconate for the Diocese of Madison at the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City on Oct. 4.

"This year when we are stressing Catholic Identity in the new evangelization, the ordained ministry of Michael Moon, David Wanish, and Tait Schroeder is a significant presence in the diocese," said Bullock.

Moon began studies for the Diocese of Madison at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary, Mundelein, Ill., in 1997. Wanish began studies at Mundelein Seminary in 1998.

Moon's home parish is St. Clement in Lancaster. He is the son of Corwin (deceased) and Mary Anita Moon of Lancaster.

Moon attended St. Clement School, Lancaster; Holy Name Seminary High School, Madison; Holy Name and Edgewood College, Madison; St. John's University of Collegeville, Minn.; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.; and Mundelein Seminary.

Wanish's home parish is St. Joseph in Madison. He is the son of Dan and Dorothy Wanish of Krakow, Wis.

He attended Andrew Jackson School, Manitowoc; Green Bay East High School; Carroll College, Waukesha; Michigan Tech, Houghton; University of Wisconsin-Madison; St. Norbert College, De Pere; and Mundelein Seminary.

Schroeder's home parish is St. Norbert in Roxbury. He is the son of Timothy and Darlene Schroeder of Sauk City.

He attended elementary and middle school in Sauk City and Prairie du Sac; Holy Name Seminary High School, Madison; Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary at St. Mary University; and Pontifical North American College in Rome.

SINSINAWA -- Sounding a note of realism tempered by hope, keynote speaker Tim Kautza, environmental specialist for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC), explained why "Eating Is a Moral Act."

Tim Kautza from the National Catholic Rural Life Conference speaks at a recent conference in Sinsinawa. (Joseph O'Brien photo)

He spoke at the recent "Baskets Overflowing" Rural Life Conference held at the Sinsinawa Mound. It was a day-long celebration of the gifts and graces the land provides to the human family.

An environmental specialist with 25 years of soil and water conservation experience, Kautza has been working on ways to address environmental problems resulting from factory farming techniques. He has coordinated a coalition of grassroots advocacy organizations in Iowa.

Eating Is Moral Act

"Eating Is a Moral Act" is a campaign that the NCRLC started a little more than a year ago to draw public attention to the injustices in the global food system," Kautza said. "But it's not just a slogan, it's a fact. Eating is a moral act. Sometimes a religious act.

"In Scripture, Peter calls us to look to the coming of the day of God and to try to hasten it. He calls us to look, reflect, keep our eyes open . . . and always watching. But his call is also to action. To become engaged, to try hard, to work strenuously to bring about the day of God without giving up."

Large-scale farms

Kautza set out the NCRLC's basic opposition to large-scale factory farms and reasons for it.

"We contend that the concentration of grain and livestock production only benefits global processors and merchants," Kautza pointed out. "Rural communities and local environments continue to collapse under a single-minded system of intensive production. And family farmers continue to leave the farm.

"In contrast we firmly believe that widespread ownership of the land, respect for farm and food processing workers, respect for the dignity of all living things, care for the integrity of creation, and rural, urban interdependence are critical components for the realization of a just food system."

Injustices in system

Kautza invited his audience to reflect on their own experiences in rural life by asking two questions: "How have you responded to the injustices in our food system as you understood those injustices? What are some of the core elements dealing with our food system that really stand out and that you've done something about?"

Kautza closed on a note of hope. "I believe that all of us gathered here today, along with our brothers and sisters who work for peace through justice around the country, are being transformed into people of compassion, people whose actions anticipate the coming of God where justice and mercy embrace a grand table overflowing with the bounty of God."

'Faith in action'

The afternoon session of "Baskets Overflowing" offered workshops on various themes of "faith in action" spiritually, culturally, and economically.

In addition, the coordinators of "Baskets Overflowing" welcomed various churches, organizations, new agricultural systems, and institutions to set up information booths at the event.

For example, representatives of a Wisconsin-wide organization, Family Farm Defenders were present to explain how they aid family farms through coalition-building strategy.

This organization received a grant of $30,000 from the Diocese of Madison's Catholic Campaign for Human Development.