News

Compass column wins top award

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Connecting Scripture to life is the goal of every Sunday readings column that auxiliary Bishop Robert Morneau writes for The Compass.

"There's a unity of human experience, whether that's today or 2,000 years ago," said Bp. Morneau. "It's all connected. We're in the same canoe and God's Word meets us with affirmation and confrontation."

The success with which the bishop meets that goal each week was acknowledged by the Catholic Press Association (CPA) last month. Bp. Morneau received the first place award for best regular Scripture column at the CPA's annual convention, held in Washington, DC, May 26-28. The CPA consists of about 200 newspapers, magazines and other Catholic publishers in the United States and Canada.

The CPA judges said that Bp. Morneau's column gives "scripture explanation with a strong sense of place - the Fox River, Florence, Cleveland. (He) says to his readers that this wasn't only a message for two millennia ago and half a world away, but it's important to where people are today."

Bp. Morneau has written his column for the diocesan paper for nearly 20 years, since the mid-1980s. He says that he tries to address how "God's word tries to illuminate our daily experiences, be it in a friendship, or in a radical need."

Each week, he seeks to find a common theme in the three Sunday readings, tie that theme with a piece of literature or a popular movie, and strike a chord with all human experience. He says that, if you understand that human experience consists of five hungers, you can see how God seeks to fill those hungers. The five hungers - for meaning, commitment, depth, integration and intimacy - are themselves all connected, the bishop said.

"The human experience needs illumination," he said. "In negative experiences, God brings healing. In positive experiences, God brings grace."