As we make our way through Lent, the Season of Mercy, it is important to maintain our dedication to the [...]

In these first six weeks since my installation, I have completed the regional Masses and meetings with our priests; visited [...]

I awoke early Wednesday morning and after a quick prayer turned on the television to find out what was happening in the world. The pictures of the Haitian earthquake bombarded the news. It was painful to watch men, women and children fleeing frantically, many covered in dust from the rubble of buildings which had been devastated by the angry earth.

One image was of a mother clutching her child, who was buried in her breast, propped up on her hip. There was an immediate feeling of helplessness, faces in shock, a need to run, a need to escape, but to where?

By the time you read this column many New Year resolutions, made with such earnest, will be broken. Writing 2010 instead of 2009 will start to become a habit and I will now have been the Archbishop of Milwaukee for a few days.

Transitions are such a major part of our lives. I have a deeper appreciation for the families that must travel to new territories because of the change of jobs and for children who are up-rooted from their schools, friends and homes, or for the parents who must say goodbye to their sons and daughters leaving for college or the military.