Miss Bernice Carroll

14 October 1919 - 25 November 2010

Bernice Carroll will always stand out in my mind as a deeply devoted member of Saint Peter Parish. I can picture right where she sat everyday at daily Mass and led the rosary. I enjoyed listening to her lector simply because she radiated Christ. She is one of those people who made an impression on me as I grew up by her silent witness and as such, witnessed to the whole parish how the Faith can, should, and must be lived.

Eternal Rest, grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Name:
Miss Bernice Carroll

Date:
October 14th, 1919 - November 25th, 2010

Visitations:
5:00PM to 7:00PM on Monday, November 29th, 2010 at Daley Murphy Wisch Chapel (map/driving directions)

Services:
11:30AM at St. Peter Catholic Church on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 (map/driving directions)

Obituary:
Miss Bernice Carroll, 91, of Footville, WI, and formerly of Beloit, WI, died Thursday, November 25, 2010 in St. Elizabeth Manor Assisted Living Facility. She was born October 14, 1919 in Avon, WI, the daughter of Edward and Elizabeth (Murphy) Carroll. Bernice was a 1935 graduate of Brother Dutton School and a 1938 graduate of Beloit High School. She received her nursing diploma in 1941 from St. Elizabeth School of Nursing, Chicago, IL. Bernice also received her certificate of Public Health from Marquette University, Bachelor of Science Degree from Loretto Heights College of Nursing, Masters Degree in Public Health-Mental Health Nursing from Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. and a Masters Degree of Science in Education-Media Specialist from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL. Bernice was a WWII veteran of the U.S. Army serving with the Army Nurse Corps as a charge nurse. Bernice had many employments which include the staff nurse at Beloit Memorial Hospital, supervisor at Beloit Health Department, school nurse at St. Catherine’s Indian School, Sante Fe, New Mexico and New Mexico State Normal School, El Rito, New Mexico. She was an Assistant Professor at Loyal University School of Nursing, Chicago, IL and a Media Specialist Instructional Programmer at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Bernice was also the coordinator for the Learning Resource Center, College of Nursing, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL. She retired in June of 1980. Bernice’s hobbies were painting, photography, traveling and proud to be of Irish Descent. She was a member of St. Peter Catholic Church. Survivors include her brother, Thomas (Bernice) Carroll of Beloit, WI; numerous nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews, great great nieces and great great nephews. She was predeceased by her parents and brother, Joseph. Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will be 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, November 30, 2010 in St. Peter Catholic Church, 620 Blackhawk Blvd, South Beloit, IL. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday in the Daley Murphy Wisch & Associates Funeral Home and Crematorium, 2355 Cranston Road, Beloit, WI, with a Rosary at 4:45 p.m.

Memorials:
In lieu of flowers, Memorials may be given in her name to Hospice.

Cemetery:
Calvary Cemetery
Colley Road
Beloit, WI 53511

Source: www.daleymurphywisch.com

New Dialogue

I opened up the The Wall Street Journal on November 22nd to find a rather misinformed article on the Holy Father’s latest comments on condom use. The quotes of the Holy Father are cited from a “book-length interview over the summer with the German writer Peter Seewald that will be officially released this week.” Needless to say, they had quotes of those who think the Church is finally accepting condom use alongside the Vatican’s clarifications; a friend posted another story from Zenit on my Facebook wall in which Dr. Janet Smith, an expert on sexuality and bioethics not to mention a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family, clarified what exactly the Holy Father meant. Church teaching has not and will never change!

The Holy Father’s (not so) controversial quote said: "There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants.”

All he is essentially saying is that the use of a condom might be the first step away from free-for-all sexual activity; the user of the condom (and he cites a male prostitute), might have made one step toward fully understanding his sexuality. The Church is not condoning condom use. All the acts for which they are used are NEVER moral including contraception, preventing a pregnancy between heterosexual couples, and preventing disease among (unmarried) hetero and homosexual couples. It isn’t really the condom at the root of the problem. It’s the actions that make people think the condom is “necessary” in the first place. The ideal sexual situation, the only moral sexual act as taught by the Church, is between a married man and woman. There is no fear of disease or fear of an unwanted child. This scenario provides the greatest of sexual freedoms, giving oneself to the beloved freely, totally, and fully. Why is abstinence until marriage the best option? It is the only way to be entirely free, guiltless, innocent, and pure.

What the Holy Father is doing (and this will be overlooked by many) is reaching out to meet sinners, ALL OF US, where we are as Christ reaches out to us. He is not judging us but reaching out to meet us as the Vicar of Christ on Earth, pulling us up from the muck, and showing that conversions happen by the grace of God and in many situations, by a long process. Dr. Smith explains: “Christ himself, of course, called for a turning away from sin. That is what the Holy Father is advocating here; not a turn towards condoms.”

The Holy Father has done something new: he has gone a step beyond the typical doctrine. He has moved beyond the usual rhetoric and opened a new conversation. This requires, though, that we understand the Church will never change her teaching. The teaching merely acts and the foundation of the new dialogue. In the ever evolving interaction of the Church with the world, we may be entering a new chapter.

Photo from wsj.com.