Wisconsin Francis-icano reader, vol. 1

WisSJ:  With well-laid plans, and some luck, Madison-area Catholics hope for a glimpse of Pope Francis

Morlino said he hopes the pope will spend some time in the U.S. talking about the recent papal encyclical on the environment. While many people have come to think of it as a document primarily about climate change, Morlino said it more broadly addresses how respect for the environment “must flow out of respect for the ecology of human nature.”

That means respect for the sacredness of life, respect for marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, and respect for the fact that “God created each person with his or her own gender, and he didn’t make mistakes,” Morlino said.

 WBAY: Green Bay Group Embarks on Pilgrimage to see Pope Francis

Bishop David Ricken joined the group on their pilgrimage. He’ll meet Pope Francis face-to-face on Wednesday.

“Pope Francis is very appealing to people he knows, people’s lives, their experiences, and he touches those lives with what he has to say, he offers the mercy of Jesus to people, he’s just a wonderful,” said Bishop Ricken. “First of all he’s a priest, and now he’s the pope, you know, the shepherd of the world.”

If he would have just come here, we wouldn't need the cutout.

Students from Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay, Wis., are pictured outside of Lambeau Field with a cutout of Pope Francis Sept. 7. Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt had hoped that Pope Francis would celebrate a Mass on the Green Bay Packers' playing field as part of his U.S. visit. (CNS photo/Sam Lucero, The Compass)

GBPG: Local pilgrims pumped for papal visit

They also will visit Daylesford Abbey, a Norbertine community outside Philadelphia. The Rev. Andrew Ciferni, director of the Center of Norbertine Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere and parochial vicar for the college parish, is a member of Daylesford Abbey.

Ciferni also wrote the words for the official hymn of this year’s World Meeting of Families. The song “Sound the Bell of Holy Freedom” was selected in December.

Fox6: As pope lands in U.S., delegations from Milwaukee head east

Archbishop Jerome Listecki says Pope Francis is all about the gospel, and people are listening.

"He's a leader who's drawn attention to making sure that we never forget our obligation to those who are in need around the world. I believe that 's the attraction by so many within the Catholic church and outside of the Catholic church," Listecki said.

JS: When the pope was in our backyard — in 1979

Sisters Louise (left) and Rita Paul from St. Anne’s Home for the Elderly wait for Pope John Paul II to celebrate Mass in Chicago on Oct. 5, 1979.

SPJournal: Stevens Point parishes celebrate papal visit

WEAU: Diocese of La Crosse organizing pilgrimage to see Pope Francis

This week's visit marks 50 years since the first papal visit to the United States by Pope Paul XI, but Chris Rogers, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of La Crosse, says Pope Francis is unlike any other.

“Just having him here, having him among us, close to us, that we can see him, experience him, and listen to him presently as we're with him," he said. "And this Pope, he's something else, he's getting a lot of attention, he's doing so much to encourage us to take care of the environment, to take care of each other. And people are listening.”

Marathon man joins crusade to get pope to Wisconsin

MARATHON CITY – Ronald Schaub first experienced it on his initial visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in 2011.

The sensation was "peaceful, gentle, and warm," a spiritual healing of a sort thatthe 66-year-old Marathon man said he had never felt before and has encountered nowhere else. And he has experienced it every time he has been back to the shrine, located in Champion about 17 miles northeast of Green Bay.

It is on this site that the Virgin Mary appeared to a woman named Adele Brise on three separate occasions in 1859, according to the Catholic Church. In 2010, Bishop David Ricken of Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay declared following a two-year investigation that the appearances did occur, making the shrine the first church-verified visitation site in the United States.

Since that time the shrine has become an international attraction for Catholics like Schaub, who has made an annual pilgrimage to Champion since 2011. It was during one of those pilgrimages that Schaub first had the idea to invite the pope to visit the shrine, and now that Pope Francis is set to visit the United States, Schaub has begun gathering signatures of central Wisconsin residents — Catholic or not — to send on an invitation to the Vatican with the hope that he will gather enough to sway the pope to visit the shrine.

continue at Stevens Point Journal 

Everybody sign the Pope to Green Bay website petition!

While [Mayor] Schmitt calls it a grassroots campaign to bring Pope Francis to Green Bay, he explained that he is reaching out to Bishop Ricken and the Diocese of Green Bay. “Part of this will be a strong working relationship with the diocese.”

While the odds may be against Green Bay hosting a papal visit, it isn’t unprecedented to have a pope visit the state. Two years before his election in 1978, Blessed Pope John Paul II paid a visit to Stevens Point.

“I just hope he gives this thing some consideration,” said Schmitt. “We are going to get more people and organizations involved. We’ll start the effort now. It’s 18 months away. This would be awesome if it happens, but (if it doesn’t) just the joy it brings people, the thought of hosting the Holy Father. It’s just great.”

Schmitt, a member of St. Francis Cathedral Parish in Green Bay, said he has run the idea past his brother, Fr. Carl Schmitt, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Sturgeon Bay, and St. Mary Parish, Maplewood, and he is supportive of the plan.

Asked his impressions of Pope Francis, Schmitt gave a politician’s response.

“If he stood for election he would easily be reelected,” he said.

“You just love to see youth be engaged with any leader — and the diversity he’s embracing,” added Schmitt. “The basic values of humanity that he speaks of, those are all things that build community and that’s what we are working on here. … What a great piece of the world we are here in northeast Wisconsin and only good can come out of this.”

On Monday, Schmitt’s office unveiled a website, Pope to Green Bay, inviting people to support the plan by signing an online petition. To view or sign it, go to www.popetogreenbay.com.

whole story at The Compass

SIGN IT!!  He's coming.  That's all there is to it. 

Photo: CNN