The Madison Seven: Hockey with a Successor to the Apostles

The final event of Saturday, 16 February for the Madison Seven was moving from dinner with Bishop Morlino to a University of Wisconsin - Madison hockey game; they were playing Minnesota State - Mankato. As noted in the previous Madison Seven post, we knew this was on the schedule and that the tickets were donated by a good and generous Catholic family of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin.

Upon arriving at the Hockey game, I was both shocked and thrilled to learn that it was not simply that we had tickets to see a hockey game, but rather that our tickets were to a private box! Further, we were to be joined by two very wonderful Catholic families from the Diocese as well.

Bishop Morlino, in his great generosity, made sure that there were snacks and soda available for us during the game. But here was the real treat: we, the seven seminarians, were able to spend a couple of hours in a relaxed mode with His Excellency the Bishop and Successor of the Apostles. Learning from his experiences and his wisdom was a powerful and wonderful experience.

During the game the UW - Madison mascot - Bucky the Badger - was moving through the stands. Now, the two Catholic families that joined us in this private box had children and knew it would be a real treat for them to be able to get up close with the Bucky the Badger. We got his attention and he motioned that he would come over to our box. Not only was he fun with the kids, but Bishop Morlino also agreed to have his picture taken with the mascot.

Again, the treat for us as seminarians was to have this amazing several hours relaxing with Bishop Morlino, a wonderful Catholic man in his own right but further as Successor of the Apostles. Bishop Morlino still had one more surprise on the way. To commemorate the evening and our time together, he made sure each of us received a UW t-shirt as a memento of our time together.

Sadly, our time with Bishop Morlino had to end. We escorted him back to his residence before heading back to our temporary home at the Diocese of Madison pastoral center. Though our intent was to leave early the next morning, the weather was already moving to prevent that from occurring . . .

Take care, -Jeremy