Catholic Herald photo/Joe Ptak
MADISON — Bishop Robert C. Morlino told over 500 guests at the recent St. Ambrose Academy Benefit Dinner held at the Marriott Hotel in Middleton that today a bishop needs to be a theologian, a defender of the faith, and an apologist.
After hearing St. Ambrose senior Clare Stiennon tell the dinner guests how she and other Ambrose teens testified at the State Capitol that teens will rise to the challenge if taught abstinence in the schools, he observed that the academy’s students were being trained for these roles, too.
Bishop Morlino received several standing ovations from the exuberant crowd as his service to the diocese and the school was described.
The event raised pledges of nearly $100,000 for the academy. Teacher Theresa Klinkhammer told the guests how grateful she was to be teaching at St. Ambrose Academy. “Beautiful, good work is being done at this school,” she said. “Students’ minds and hearts are educated using the best of what has been said and thought throughout all of history. Students are able to think. They get to talk to each other about ideas. They develop their relationship with God.”
Klinkhammer added, “When I dreamed of what a vocation in teaching might be, of informing minds and changing hearts, I think I was dreaming of St. Ambrose.”