Dear Parish Family,
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ON DISPENSATION
The Wisconsin Bishops jointly decided to lift the suspension of the Sunday Mass obligation in their respective dioceses during this month. Here in our Diocese, beginning on Saturday Sept 26th, Bishop Donald J. Hying, revokes the dispensation issued on March 12, 2020, by which all the faithful of the Diocese were excused from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and other holy days of obligation.
At the same time calling to mind that, in accordance with the principles of canon law and moral theology, those who are prevented from attending Mass for grave reasons such as illness or the care of infants are consequently not bound by the obligation to attend Mass in the first place, and they may therefore miss Mass on a day of obligation without the fear that they are thereby sinning, displeasing the Lord, or failing in their obligation as a Catholic.
Nevertheless taking into consideration Bishop offers DISPENSATION, only for:
- A) Those who pose greater than normal risk, either to themselves, to their families and others with whom they have contact, or to those attending Mass, whether the source of the additional risk is their age, health, possible recent exposure, difficulty in observing social distancing guidelines and other hygienic measures, or any other cause, gauged in proportion to the gravity of the obligation in question.
- B) Those who attempt to attend Mass but, due to the limitations of Church capacity imposed by ecclesiastical or civil authority, are either unable to enter the Church or else upon arrival voluntarily abstain from doing so in order that others may attend, even if it would be possible to attend another Mass without extreme difficulty.
Anyone who legitimately does not attend Mass on a given Sunday or holy day of obligation, whether in virtue of this dispensation or for some reason that excuses the obligation by its very nature, is urged to sanctify the day through prayer and pious works such as reading Scripture, praying the Rosary, praying the Liturgy of the Hours or watching the Mass on television.
In other cases, the faithful are reminded that for a just cause the Pastor of the Parish can dispense the faithful of the Parish and anyone actually present in the parish from the obligation to attend Mass in individual cases (only for grave and legitimate reasons).
Now is the time to call people back to Mass who can safely and securely do so, but with full awareness that our elderly, immunodeficient persons, and those who are still at risk may refrain from Sunday Mass attendance without the sin of violating the obligation.
Therefore, we respectfully ask the parishioners to please sign up to attend for weekend Masses for now, so that, we will get an idea about the numbers.
Kindly co-operate till we get to a normal situation.
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Information to the Parishioners
Dear Faithful of the diocese, we are still getting word that a number of email are being sent to you, attributed to Bishop Hying and/or a priest of the Diocese of Madison, asking that the recipient “email me as soon as you get this message” or to “buy gift cards” for the bishop or a priest. This is not how the bishop or the priests/parishes will ever approach you for assistance.
Sadly, predators are using this current crisis to take advantage of good and generous people. The bishop is sending no such email and neither are our priests. Any official Church email will come from a legitimate (and likely easily validated) email address and only ever link to official websites.
“A Moment with the Bishop” https://youtu.be/s5gif5HGfLo
To contact Fr Alex Carmel; E-mail frcarmelgabriels@gmail.com Phone 920-945-0378
Contributions can be made online at
www.madisondiocese.org/parishgive
For current mass schedule, please chose the current bulletin under “Bulletins”
Bulletin Cover 2020
Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday: 5:00 pm, St.Francis Xavier
Sunday: 8:00 am, St.Francis Xavier
9:30 am, St. Mary Magdalene
11:00 am, St.Francis Xavier
Some events at St. Francis Xavier: Annual festival and turkey dinner in July (Has been cancelled this year due to Covid 19)
Our festival includes Dinner, Raffle, Silent Auction, Kids games), Oktoberfest, Cookie Walk (the First Saturday of December ), Lent soup suppers, and St. Patrick’s Day corned beef dinner.
Some events at St. Mary Magdalene: Pig Roast for September 2020 has been cancelled due to Covid 19. Halloween Trick or Trunk, Christmas Bazaar December 2020 will be determined at a later date., and springtime rummage-a-rama.
To see what is happening in the next few weeks, click on our bulletin.