MONROE — Bishop Robert C. Morlino blessed the new chapel and altar of Monroe Clinic’s hospital in Monroe on March 29. In the context of Mass, Bishop Morlino blessed the chapel altar and space to God, for whose mission the chapel and hospital are dedicated to serve.
Blessing of chapel, altar
About halfway through the Mass, the bishop prayed as part of the blessing, that the new hospital altar will “be the center of our praise and thanksgiving” and “fountain of the unfailing waters of salvation.”
In preparing for this week’s blessing and reflecting on why we establish chapels in hospitals, the bishop remarked, “While every altar, on which a Catholic Mass is offered, has been blessed in a similar way, how great it is to think about the saving graces and blessings flowing from the Sacrifice of the Mass offered in a hospital, where patients and their families are often most in need of God’s grace, healing, and consolation.”
Gift of home
The bishop’s visit to Monroe concluded with the Diocese of Madison’s gift of the beloved Msgr. Thomas Campion’s home to Monroe Clinic.
In 1971, Monsignor Campion started as chaplain to St. Clare Hospital, which later became Monroe Clinic when St. Clare Hospital and Monroe Clinic merged in 1992.
Monsignor Campion was appointed by Bishop Cletus F. O’Donnell as the first director of the Diocese of Madison’s Apostolate to the Handicapped in 1967, which he continued until his death in November 2010.
In recent months, leading up to the Monroe Clinic’s opening of the new hospital, Mike Sanders, Monroe Clinic president and CEO, entered into discussions with the Diocese of Madison regarding the purchase of the property located at 504 and 512 22nd Ave.
Earlier this year, in a meeting on the matter, Fr. Lawrence Bakke, current diocesan director of the Apostolate to the Handicapped, was pleased to surprise Sanders with the bishop’s decision to gift the property to the organization, in gratitude for their decades of faithful generosity of space to the Diocese of Madison’s Apostolate to the Handicapped. Monroe Clinic graciously accepted the donated property.
“We and our sponsor, the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes, are grateful to the diocese for donating Monsignor’s home,” said Sanders. “Monsignor had such a positive impact on everyone he met and was a big part of Monroe Clinic’s legacy.”
At the conclusion of the Mass, at which the altar and chapel space were blessed, Bishop Morlino and Father Bakke presented Sanders and Monroe Clinic with the documentation finalizing the gift.