administration – Madison Catholic Herald

MADISON — On an August afternoon this past summer, I had the opportunity to talk with “Jack,” a military veteran who had once been homeless but has been off the streets for a number of years.

Jack had been raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm with 11 siblings and served in the Korean War. As we talked, I learned how the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital program for helping homeless vets recover helped Jack take charge of his life.

Help from VA program

We met at Jack’s apartment with Matt Heldman, VA peer specialist at the William S. Middleton VA Memorial Hospital in Madison, himself a homeless vet who experienced a successful recovery.

On March 22, 2012

George Weigel

It’s not just an issue in Pakistan and China

Thirty-some years ago, I spent a fair amount of time on religious freedom issues: which meant, in those simpler days, trying to pry Lithuanian priests and nuns out of Perm Camp 36 and other GULAG islands.

Had you told me in 1982 that one of my “clients,” the Jesuit Sigitas Tamkevicius, would be archbishop of Kaunas in a free Lithuania in 2012, I would have thought you a bit optimistic.

If you had also told me, back then, that there would eventually be serious religious freedom problems in the United States, I would have thought you a bit mad.