• Biography
• 2007 Columns
• 2008 Columns

Christmas: celebrating God’s gift of love

DECEMBER 21, 2007 | “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This baby in the manger — so small, so helpless, so vulnerable, this child is the Son of the Most High God. The darkness of a long night — when God seemed so distant and his voice so silent — is lifted by the brilliant glow of a chorus of angels singing joyfully the good news: in Mary’s child, God and sinner would be reconciled.

Prayers are an expression of hope

DECEMBER 14, 2007 | On the eve of our Advent Season this year, Pope Benedict gave the Church an early Christmas present: the second encyclical letter of his pontificate. Titled “Spe Salvi” (“In Hope We Were Saved”), the Holy Father offers us an erudite, but still accessible, meditation on the Christian virtue of hope. As St. Paul told the Ephesians, a world without God is a world without hope (cf. Eph 2:12). To come to know God, the true God, means to receive hope.

Diocese’s 40th anniversary calls us to new ways to evangelize

DECEMBER 07, 2007 | With the First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year, a year which here in the Diocese of Orlando will mark a significant milestone: the 40th anniversary of that date in June 1968 when Pope Paul VI created our diocese from counties that had previously belonged to the Dioceses of St. Augustine and Miami.

Jews, Christians and Muslims living in peace

NOVEMBER 23, 2007 | The following letter was written jointly by an interfaith group of four religious leaders, including Bishop Wenski. (See related article here.)

Preparations for the Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Annapolis are intensifying. As religious leaders in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, who live in the same community in mutual respect, we believe that peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible. We are not alone in this hope.

‘Wherever the Church is at work … consecrated women are there’

NOVEMBER 16, 2007 | “The one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11). Let’s hear it for the religious women who, in following the evangelical counsels, seek the path of humble service lived within an exalted vocation. Here in the Diocese of Orlando, we are blessed with a goodly number of religious sisters who work in various ministries of this local Church: They serve in our schools and parish religious education programs and in administrative posts in our chancery, but also they are found among the poor, the immigrant and the developmentally disabled.

Belief in Purgatory helps Catholics maintain hope, trust in God’s mercy

NOVEMBER 9, 2007 | “We believe in eternal life. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ — whether they must still make expiation in the fire of Purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies they are received by Jesus into Paradise like the good thief — go to form the People of God which succeeds death, death which will be totally destroyed on the day of the Resurrection when these souls are reunited with their bodies” (Pope Paul VI, “The Credo of the People of God,” 28).

‘Responsible citizenship is a virtue’ and Catholic tradition

NOVEMBER 2, 2007 | Oftentimes, when I, or one of my brother bishops speaks on a public policy issue — whether dealing with abortion, immigration, stem cell research, the war or any other “hot button issue” — we are accused of “meddling in politics.”

A true missionary spirit urges us to reach out to others

OCTOBER 26, 2007 | May “participation in the Mass … lead us to participate in the mission.”

Sin clouds the human reason

OCTOBER 19, 2007 | Some years ago, Ted Koppel of “Nightline” fame addressed the graduating class of an Ivy League University. An observant Jew, he failed to follow the rules of political correctness and reminded the soon-to-be alumni that the Ten Commandments were just that — and not merely Ten Suggestions.

A right and beautiful choice can be influenced by just one

OCTOBER 12, 2007 | One person can change your life. This is the premise of a new film that will debut in the Orlando area Oct. 26. The movie, Bella, centers around Nina, a young, unmarried waitress at a Mexican restaurant in New York City who finds herself pregnant and out of a job after coming in late to work several days because of morning sickness.

This year’s Holy Rosary month includes anniversary of miracle at Fatima

OCTOBER 5, 2007 | October is the month of the Holy Rosary. This venerable prayer has been a popular devotion among Catholics for centuries. Pope John Paul II considered it his favorite prayer and shortly before his death he urged Catholics to “rediscover” this crown jewel in the Church’s treasury of prayers.

Measure would brighten future for immigrant students

SEPTEMBER 28, 2007 | Comprehensive Immigration Reform midwifed by Sen. Mel Martinez was stillborn earlier this summer when the failure of the cloture vote doomed the bill. The consequences of this failure are real.

Thank you "for your continued support of my ministry"

SEPTEMBER 14, 2007 | September 3 marked the 10th anniversary of my ordination to the episcopate. I am amazed that a decade has already passed.