News from the Church:
Polish Cardinal, ‘Rosary Priest’ Among Sainthood Causes Moving Forward -  Pope Francis on Tuesday recognized the heroic virtue of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, the former metropolitan archbishop of Warsaw, Poland, as well as Father Patrick Peyton, an Irish priest known for his promotion of the Rosary......Read more

News from the Pope:
Pope Francis shares Christmas greetings with Vatican employees - Pope Francis on Thursday exchanged Christmas greetings with Vatican employees thanking them for the work they do. “Work is the first word that I tell you, not to tell you to work more, but to tell you ‘Thank you!,” he told employees and their families gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall....Read More
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News from the USCCB:
Catholic Partners Urge 18-month Extension of Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador - WASHINGTON—On December 20, 2017, Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin, Texas, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, was joined by Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), and Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN) in sending a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, urging an 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for El Salvador. .....Read More

The Family Life Committee members of Christ the King have discussed and agreed to take on a “new” informational endeavor, called: “ Meet Your Parish Family .” Every one to two months, one of our parish families will be contacted by a Family Life Committee member asking them, first for their permission, than facts about their family and requesting a time when a Family Life member can take a family picture or the family can provide them with a picture.

Please take time, after mass , to look at the “Meet Your Parish Family” easel that has been placed in the gathering room of the church. We hope that this will become a way for every family of our parish to get to know the names and faces of those who are registered members.  

See more news in the bulletin.

News from the Pope:
Pope Francis: Why we should go to Mass on Sundays and not be slaves to work - Pope Francis reflected on the need to go to Mass on Sundays, and the need to rest on that day, abstaining from work and spending time with family and the community........Read More
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News from the USCCB:
Response to The Chieti Document is Another Step Forward for the Catholic and Orthodox Churches’ Common Understanding in Service of Unity -  WASHINGTON—The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation (NAOCTC) has released its response to the most recent document produced by the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Entitled, "Synodality and Primacy During the First Millennium: Towards a Common Understanding in Service to the Unity of the Church," this work of the international dialogue was released in September 2016. It is often referred to as, "The Chieti Document," because it was finalized during a meeting in Chieti, Italy.....Read More

News from the Church:
Father Andrew Apostoli Remembered as a ‘Bright Beacon of Light’ - Franciscan Father Andrew Apostoli, EWTN host of Sunday Night Prime and a founder of the Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, died Wednesday at age 75, after a battle with cancer during the last several months.....Read more
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Christmas Eve. * Dec. 24 children’s Mass @ 4 pm
Christmas Eve.* Dec 24 Mass @ 10 pm
Christmas Day * Dec 25 mass @ 10 am

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Praised be Jesus Christ! I heard recently that there are roughly 18,000 Catholic parishes in the U.S. Our own Diocese of La Crosse has 161 parishes (down from 165, due to mergers). Speaking of Dioceses, there are 197 in the US, of which 32 are Archdioceses. If you’re enjoying this statistical glance at the Catholic Church, then you’ll be happy to know there are 83 minor Basilicas in the U.S., 2 of them being Holy Hill and Saint Josaphat in Milwaukee. Moving right along, did you know that the number of priests in the U.S. dropped from nearly 59,000 in 1965 to about 37,000 in 2016? And that’s nothing when you consider that there were nearly 180,000 Sisters in 1965 compared to the 47,000 we have today. The decline in vocations is a significant challenge and this is complicated by the very wonderful fact that we have more Catholics to serve (c. 48 million in 1965 compared to 74 million today). Something that we have seen here is more parishes without a resident priest – Christ the King last had a resident pastor in 1996. God willing, all of this information whets your appetite for more and you’ve now decided to purchase a sesquicentennial book. We or- dered 315 of these and it’s up to you to prove that this was a prophetic number in that we are able to sell every last one of them. It’s an extraordinarily handsome book that is full of beautiful pictures, not to mention great prose that tells of the miracles of faith and God’s love in our Diocese over the past 150 years. As you know, I’ve made it a hobby to visit as many of the parishes in our Diocese as I can and I’m down to just 3 parishes left. For those of you who have much more normal hobbies, you can virtually visit every parish in the Diocese just by purchasing the book – every parish has a double - page spread! As the Roman poet Cicero once put it, “ To be ignorant of the past is to remain always a child .” Or maybe you prefer the philosopher George Santayana, “ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ” If you buy a 150 th anniversary book, never again will you have to worry about anyone exposing your igno- rance of the past. And for only $33.00 you’ll have a gift that keeps on giving (I will re - gift mine after a year or so – just in time for the 151 st anniversary of the Diocese). Now to come full circle, the book will make it clear that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Gone are the days when poor people built churches and the faith was much more central to peo- ples’ lives (Mass attendance has dropped from nearly 50% of Catholics in 1965 to 22% today). One suspects that the life of sacrifice and hard work made people more disposed to the reality of God and His Providence. And while it’s inac- curate to compare different eras, suffice it to say that times have changed and the challenges to preaching and living the Gospel are as formidable as ever. Thank God that the genius of our Catholic faith is its ability to flourish in times of adversity. As Saint Thomas More put it, “ No time is so cor- rupt in which a saint could not thrive. ” And so our faith in- spires us to “ put out into the deep ” and cooperate with God’s will so that souls may be saved. Yes, we are asked to do more with less, but so it was for our ancestors, and so it will always be for those who set out on the straight and narrow way of the cross. So get down on your knees and pray, oh, and dig into your purse and fork over the 33 bucks!
May God grant you the joy of the Gospel as we celebrate Gaudete Sunday! 

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