Day: May 11, 2017

On
Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Name chosen for homeless day resource center

the beacon
Partners in the homeless day resource center project gather to announce its name as “The Beacon” during a press conference on May 2 in Madison. Pictured from left are: Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, Catholic Charities of Madison President and CEO Jackson Fonder, President and CEO of United Way of Dane County Renee Moe, president of J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. Dave Beck-Engel, and Madison Deputy Mayor Katie Crawley. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash)

MADISON — “The homeless day resource center will be known as . . . The Beacon.”

The words of Catholic Charities of Madison President and CEO Jackson Fonder marked the next step in the project to open said resource center near downtown Madison.

The name was announced at a May 2 press conference at the United Way of Dane County in Madison.

The announcement came after more than 400 people submitted naming ideas online and more than 400 people voted on the name finalists, which were: The Beacon, The Net, The Opportunity Place, and The Turning Point Center.

At the press conference, Fonder said “The Beacon” was submitted first by former Catholic Charities board member Diane Ballweg. Other people also submitted the name as an idea later in the process.

Working together

Joining Fonder at the press conference was Renee Moe, CEO of United Way of Madison.

Read More
On
Tony Magliano

Our common home really needs your help!

“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system,” warns Pope Francis in his landmark environmental encyclical Laudato Si’ (“On Care for Our Common Home”).

Indeed, the scientific consensus is very solid. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities.” (see: http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consen us/).

Read More
On
Bishop Robert Barron

Pride, humility, and social media

On a recent trip to Sacramento, from my home base in the LA area, I flew Southwest Airlines. In an idle moment, I reached for the magazine in the seatback pocket and commenced to leaf through it.

I came across an article by a woman named Sarah Menkedick entitled “Unfiltered: How Motherhood Interrupted My Relationship with Social Media.” The piece was not only wittily and engagingly written; it also spoke to some pretty profound truths about our cultural situation today and the generation that has come of age under the influence of the Internet.

She argues that to have swum in the sea of Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube from the time that one was a child was to live one’s life perpetually in front of an audience. Most millenials never simply had experiences; they were conditioned to record, preserve, and present those experiences to a following who were invited to like what they saw, to comment on it, to respond to it.

Read More
On
Randy Gracyalny

Thanks for support of fish fries, especially Good Friday dinner

To the editor:

On behalf of Our Lady of the Assumption (OLA) Parish, I would like to thank everyone who supported our fish fries this past season.

In particular, we would like to thank those who attended and supported the Good Friday fish dinner.  That night we served over 325 individuals and families, some of whom may not have had a good meal that day without your donations.

Read More
On
Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

And the name is . . . The Beacon

It is a sad fact that many men, women, and children continue to be homeless in the city of Madison and Dane County.

Here we are in the capital city of Wisconsin, a city known for its progressive character. Yet each year, about 3,500 people experience homelessness, nearly half of them being children.

Working together

How can we reduce or even eliminate homelessness in our city? A bold effort is underway to work on this problem. It is a collaboration of the faith, business, nonprofit, government, and neighborhood communities working together.

Read More