When the Annual Catholic Appeal began in 2009, the Diocese of Madison had hopes of being able to give back to diocesan parishes and parish schools through grants of funds received over the goal amount. The 2015 Annual Catholic Appeal was the first year this reality came to fruition.
Category: Around the Diocese
News from around the 11 counties of the Diocese of Madison.
Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer memorial gifts
MADISON — On Saturday, July 2, 2016, the Diocese of Madison lost a holy and faithful servant. Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer served the Diocese of Madison and the Church until the day he died.
As director of the Diocese of Madison’s Propagation of the Faith for over 40 years, Monsignor Schmelzer faithfully served the Pontifical Mission Societies.
In fitting tribute to his commitment to the Propagation of the Faith, Monsignor Schmelzer’s family asked to have memorial gifts directed to this cause.
Wisconsin Catholic Charismatic Renewal to hold family conference in Green Lake
GREEN LAKE — The Wisconsin Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) will host a family conference, “WIsconsin on FIre,” at the Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake August 12 to 14.
This year’s conference will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the CCR and will feature speaker David Mangan, who was present at the Duquesne Weekend in 1967, the event often spoken of as the beginning of the CCR in the U.S.
Outdoor Mass at St. James in Vermont
VERMONT — The annual outdoor Mass at St. James, Vermont, will be held on Sunday, Aug. 7, at 12 noon with Fr. Tom Kelly as celebrant.
A potluck dinner will follow at the Blue Mounds View Park in the village of Blue Mounds.
Catholic Multicultural Center hosts community block party
MADISON — The Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC) will host its fourth annual community block party Saturday, Aug. 13, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The CMC coordinates the block party to offer area families a free summer event to enjoy, to bring people together, and to celebrate multicultural unity.
Madison man brings documentary film Apparition Hill to local theater
MADISON — Len Hornung, a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Madison, attended a recent national Marian Conference at Notre Dame.
While he was there, an exhibit promoted a film called Apparition Hill. This film chronicles the journey of seven strangers who travel to the village of Medjugorje.
After the conference, Len and his wife, Paula, attended a showing of the film in Menomonie, Wis. “The film was very moving. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” Len said.
Fort Atkinson teacher retires after 42 years
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| Pat Bries, fifth grade teacher at St. Joseph School in Fort Atkinson, hands out Turkish Delights to some of her students. Bries is retiring after 42 years at the school. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
FORT ATKINSON — As Pat Bries completed her fourth, and final, decade teaching fifth graders — bringing the total to more than 600 — her classroom displayed her career, both the past and the present.
A Smartboard has long replaced the chalkboard, but signs with the cursive alphabet still adorned the classroom.
Bries said the handwriting style is still needed in the real world, “I don’t think it’s on the way out yet.”
Her desk displayed small school pictures of every student she taught since the school started having the photos taken more than 20 years ago, while her current students listened to her read to them from an eBook reader.
The book was Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck, a book she has read to all of her classes toward the end of the school year.
Bries reads it because one of the book’s main characters has a “strong sense of right and wrong” and her soon-to-be-departing fifth graders are “going into middle school now and they realize that life is not all black and white — there are a lot of shades of gray.”
Despite the school year and a teaching career of 42 years coming to an end, it was just a normal day in Pat Bries’ classroom located at the end of the hallway at St. Joseph School in Fort Atkinson.
Death of Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer marks end of era
The death of Msgr. Delbert L. Schmelzer, P.A., V.G., marks in a sense the “end of an era,” said Bishop Robert C. Morlino in his homily at the Mass of Christian Burial held on July 8 at St. Christopher Parish (St. Andrew Church) in Verona.
‘Month’s Mind’ Mass for Monsignor Schmelzer
The diocesan community continues to pray for the soul of the late Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer.
Blessed Sacrament Parish hosts mission featuring relic of St. Jude
MADISON — Blessed Sacrament Parish will host a three-day mission featuring veneration of the arm relic of St. Jude, believed to be the largest relic of an Apostle outside of Rome, Italy.
Fr. Michail Ford, OP, director of the Dominican Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus in Chicago, will lead the St. Jude Mission of Mercy and Hope from Monday to Wednesday, July 25, 26, and 27, at Blessed Sacrament Church, 2116 Hollister Ave.