Tag: Apostolate to the Handicapped

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Apostolate helps churches, schools provide access in diocese

MADISON — The Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities (formerly the Apostolate to the Handicapped) has been a resource for people in the Diocese of Madison since 1967.

Beginning in 2013, at the direction of Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Msgr. Larry Bakke, director of the Apostolate, initiated a program to provide grants to parishes and schools to help cover some of the expenses of making their buildings, property, and grounds more accessible to people with disabilities.

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities has new name, expands work started in 1967

apostolate to handicapped staff
Msgr. Larry Bakke, right, continues as director of the newly named Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities. The Apostolate’s new associate director is Deacon Jim Hoegemeier, left, and the new administrative assistant is Kellie Raddell. (Catholic Herald photo/Pam Payne)

MADISON — The newly named Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities in the Diocese of Madison builds on the vision of its first director while expanding its outreach to include more fully persons with disabilities in the life of the Church in the diocese.

Msgr. Larry Bakke, the current director, announced the new name and two new staff members on the weekly television Mass broadcast on Sunday, Nov. 12, on WISC-TV.

Established in 1967

He noted that the former Apostolate to the Handicapped and the TV Mass began in 1967 under the direction of the late Msgr. Thomas Campion, who died six years ago in November of 2010.

“We remember him with great love,” said Monsignor Bakke, saying Monsignor Campion emphasized that “all of you matter; we are all God’s children.”

Monsignor Bakke was appointed director of the Apostolate in 2011, while also serving as pastor of St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Monroe and Brodhead, a parish with a school and large staff.

Office moves, staff added

While Monsignor Bakke will remain in Monroe, the office of the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities has been moved to the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center at Holy Name Heights in Madison. A full-time associate director and administrative assistant have been hired to work in the Madison office.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Apostolate to the Handicapped presents annual Day at the Dells

“This is really a miracle,” said Norberta Lewis from Necedah.

The first-time guest of the Diocese of Madison’s Apostolate to the Handicapped Day at the Dells was amazed and impressed that a priest would bring Communion to her seat, a volunteer would bring her sack lunch, and she, and her friend Margaret Gabay, also from Necedah, would get a chance to see a performance of the Tommy Bartlett Water Show.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Apostolate to the Handicapped shares Christmas spirit with disabled, elderly

“This is so cool!” said first-time guest Denise Horn.

The Janesville resident had attended the Diocese of Madison’s Apostolate to the Handicapped Day at the Dells — featuring Mass, lunch, and the Tommy Bartlett Water Show — numerous times in the past, but she had never attended the annual Advent/Christmas Party before.

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Reviewing services provided to those with disabilities in the Diocese of Madison

MADISON — “We call upon people of good will to reexamine their attitudes toward their brothers and sisters with disabilities and promote their well-being, acting with the sense of justice and the compassion that the Lord so clearly desires.

“Further, realizing the unique gifts individuals with disabilities have to offer the Church, we wish to address the need for their integration into the Christian community and their fuller participation in its life.”

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