To the editor:
The December 3 story on the forthcoming new facility for St. Paul’s University Catholic Center is bittersweet. Though perennially cramped and austere, St. Paul’s was a beacon for thousands of UW Catholics and our ecumenical friends.
I was struck by the comments about how “dark” the present building seemed. The first time I walked in 37 years ago, the stark structure seemed so cold, but it was the people who made it warm, inviting, inclusive, and relevant.
As Pope Francis said, the Church should be a hospital for sinners, not a monument for saints. The Church isn’t a building or pews, kneelers, crosses, collars, vestments, etc., but rather the people, a community of believers called to live out Christ among us.
It was that stark austerity that reminds us that we are the warmth, the energy, the Church.
Dick Ginkowski, Kenosha