MONROE — The diocesan Office of Rural Life conducted its first of 11 rural listening sessions hosted by St. Clare of Assisi parish at St. Victor Church in Monroe on August 31.
Nearly 50 people attended the session introduced by Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison and facilitated by Tom Nelson, rural life coordinator.
Emphasizing that he wants concrete solutions and activities to come out of the sessions to be held in each of the 11 counties of the diocese, Bishop Hying said he has no pre-conceived agenda and wants outcomes to serve all of the rural population, not just Catholics.
Despite having grown up in the Milwaukee area and serving in two urban dioceses, Bishop Hying told those gathered that he welcomed his assignment three years ago to the predominantly rural Madison diocese.
Bishop Hying’s father Albert grew up on farms near Castle Rock Ridge and Highland in Grant and Iowa Counties.
As a child, the bishop spent time on his grandparents’ farm and he still has relatives in the diocese.
The bishop said he is “very passionate about doing more about rural life and reaching out to our smaller parishes.”
After learning that the diocese previously had a rural office, he convened a working group on rural issues and reappointed Tom Nelson as coordinator.
Listening to the rural people
The group met just over a year ago and decided it needed to hear from the rural people to “assess current services and explore opportunities to provide a more compassionate response to struggling individuals and families across our rural landscape.”
With that in mind, listening sessions were scheduled but then had to be canceled due to the pandemic.
Now, with the first rescheduled session at Nelson’s parish in Green County, participants were asked to identify strengths and weaknesses for rural people in their county.
As the facilitator, Nelson started the list with “cheese” as a strength for the county, good for the economy and culture.
With the ball rolling, someone mentioned roads as a positive, followed by someone suggesting roads also belonged on the challenges list because of some of the back roads needing work.
Teresa Zimmer, a member of the diocesan Rural Life Committee and executive director of the Green County U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center, wrote down the strengths, and Nelson listed the challenges on easel paper.
Broadband becoming available
Stephen Scanlan, retired circuit court judge, said lack of internet is a challenge that is being met with the laying of fiber optics.
A member of the Green County Broadband Committee, he said, “If you are looking for rural broadband, initiatives are going on that will give you broadband.” Major companies are coming into the county to offer service, and it is happening quickly.
Every house in Monticello, he said, now has the Internet. As the Internet becomes more available, he asked, “How will the Church reach out?”
Medical care was noted as a strength, but the challenge is the lack of staff to meet the health care needs of the people.
Following that, staff shortages in other areas were noted including in the Mexican cheese factory managed by Hector Larraga, St. Clare parishioner.
Other shortages noted were in affordable housing and child and elder care.
A spokesperson for the Hispanic community said that she works with families who need childcare early in the morning to work on farms and in the cheese factory. Senior care is also needed.
Transportation needs
Transportation was another challenge mentioned especially for those who need it to get to their jobs.
Nelson said lack of transportation affects where people can shop and socialize and integrate into the community.
Transportation is especially a challenge for the Hispanic community, members of whom are known as very reliable workers.
Water resources in the county are a plus for drinking, tourism, and manufacturing.
Nearly 90 percent of the county is in a watershed district for the management of water.
Jerry Daniels, a farmer, offered several challenges including annexation policies of the cities, lack of enforcement of antitrust laws, and tax policies that result in the “big getting bigger with the small farms having no way to benefit.”
The crop insurance program, he said, is a negative for the small farms.
While the county has good food pantries, there are not enough of them and not enough locally grown food.
The county also lacks meat processing plants. The few local growers take their produce to the bigger cities where they can earn more money for their products, said Nelson.
The topic of living wages prompted discussion about starter wages for young people and family-supporting wages.
Some seasonal employment may pay higher wages but offer no benefits.
Another challenge is that a small wage increase may result in the family no longer receiving needed benefits.
Opportunities for youth
Several participants talked about the high quality of living in the rural community.
One speaker said the rural areas produce more pastors and members of religious communities than urban areas and provide opportunities for the youth to learn about service.
The Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities was started in Monroe by Fr. Tom Campion in 1967, and many youths served as volunteers.
Sports, FFA, and 4-H are also strong in the county.
Loss of farms due to youth leaving the county was noted as a challenge.
Saying farming is a vocation rather than a job, Nelson cited the Soil Sisters as being good for local food production.
In addition to more women getting into farming, the county is seeing more immigrant farmers, another plus.
A challenge in the rural areas is mental health, including depression and alcohol and other drug abuse.
Kris Wisnefske, a retired parish nurse, said there is a “real lack of mental health providers.”
The discussion continued with concern about suicides among farmers and emerging programs that are helping.
Bishop Hying said the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities is trying to help parishes that have suffered from mental health issues and just beginning to provide counseling in the rural areas.
Zimmer told of suicide prevention efforts in neighboring Iowa County through the University of Wisconsin Extension.
She distributed copies of a comprehensive list of resources, in English and Spanish, available in the area.
Wisnefske told of a suicide survivor who started a prevention program.
Communicating about these programs is a challenge, said Nelson. “Since we are so spread out and lack local newspapers, we don’t always know what is going on.”
More opportunities for worship
A weakness identified for the Hispanic community is not being able to worship in their language. “Our dream is to have a priest who speaks Spanish.”
The closing of Catholic churches has affected Anglo Catholics as well. The St. Clare Parish, which includes St. Victor Church in Monroe and St. Rose of Lima Church in Brodhead, is the only Catholic parish in Green County, and its school is the only Catholic school in the county.
Nelson said the restructuring of the churches has been a challenge, and the parish is working on unifying the communities including the Spanish-speaking community.
Parish members agreed that the school is “really good” with more Hispanic families sending their children to the school.
The public schools and library were cited as strengths, with opportunities for Spanish-speaking students and adults.
Help with communication both in English and Spanish is a need, said several people. Bishop Hying said during the pandemic the diocese purchased Flocknote, a text and email messaging service focused on religious institutions, for all the parishes.
He asked about expanding it as a resource for communicating and for sharing Spanish translations.
“What other specific concrete activities and solutions can the Church do from the diocese?” asked the bishop.
Among the suggestions were more bilingual priests, adding Spanish phrases to the homilies, faith-based partnerships, virtual learning with multilingual options, making use of the technical college facilities in the county, using the empty church buildings as satellite offices to provide services closer to the people, offering Bible studies in locations other than the church, and communicating with legislators on needs.
More sessions scheduled
The bishop emphasized that he wants results even before all the listening sessions are completed.
The second listening session was held later in the week at Holy Family Church in La Valle in Sauk County.
Others scheduled for this fall are:
- Thursday, Sept. 23, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at St. Bernard Parish community, 114 S. Church St., Watertown (Jefferson County).
- Thursday, Nov. 4, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Our Lady of Fatima Parish community, 104 E. Harriet St., Darlington (Lafayette County).
- Tuesday, Nov. 9, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., St. Stephen Parish community, 716 Shu-Lar Ln., Clinton (Rock County).
- The remainder will be held after Christmas.
- For more information on the listening sessions and to share information with the diocesan Rural Life Office contact Tom Nelson at 608-438-7154 or [email protected]