Author: Gordon Govier

Matt Foley the motivational speaker lived in a van down by the river. The real Matt Foley — the one Chris Farley named his iconic “Saturday Night Live” character after — is head pastor at St. James Catholic Church in Arlington Heights and still misses his good friend.

Denise Jackson was just 16 when she landed a spot on the long-running TV phenomenon known as “American Idol,” and a lengthy profile on the front page of her hometown newspaper. That was 2007. Her magnificent voice would return the Madison teenager to the “American Idol” audition stage four more times. She’d sing for a who’s-who of “Idol” judges, beating out tens of thousands of would-be singers in the process, though she didn’t make the reality TV show’s final cut. The La Follette High School graduate hasn’t yet crossed the bridge to stardom. But her journey helped her cross a…

Go ahead and get both the pulled pork pizza with barbecue sauce and the “Burgertime” pie, with ground beef, bacon, onions and extra cheddar cheese. It’s for a good cause. Uncle E’s Pizza, launched earlier this month, is a food cart with a twist: a mobile frozen pizza business paired with community service. Uncle E’s is the creation of Kelly Erdman and his wife, Lori Erdman, who live on the north side of Madison. They and their children attend the nondenominational Christian Living Water Church in Sun Prairie, and they have taken Jesus’ biblical directive to “feed my sheep” to heart.

The Catholic student center at UW-Madison has slightly downsized its proposed new building, dropping the number of stories from six to five. The revision is a further cut from the initial 14-story proposal. As for this latest move, the Rev. Eric Nielsen, director of St. Paul’s University Catholic Center, said fundraising is going well but that rising construction costs are eating into what the center can afford.

Karin Krause has fond childhood memories of sitting on her grandmother’s porch, listening to her stories while peeling vegetables for that evening’s dinner. Her grandma always had coffee and cookies ready to offer neighbors who frequently stopped by to chat. Today, Krause is founder and director of Hope & A Future, an adult family residence she has run at her home for over a decade. She has her eye on expansion, with the goal of building a supportive intergenerational community on the Far West Side. Krause believes connections between the generations, particularly old and young, make everyone’s life richer. Barbara…

An 18-year-old student from an academic institution in Wisconsin has accused a professor of forcing her to omit references to the Bible for a class assignment. University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County Professor Annette Kuhlman is guilty of religious discrimination for not allowing biblical references in a sociology project, student Rachel Langeberg claims.

Two prominent women. They were both 88 years old, well known and highly respected in their spheres, yet they held two completely different worldviews. When they died 24 hours apart, I couldn’t help but consider how these two women, so much alike in their tenacity, passion, and commitment, had given their lives over to polar opposite causes. Anne Nicol Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, died June 14, 2015 and Elisabeth Elliot, Christian missionary, speaker and author, died the next day on June 15.

A Catholic religious order that owns a large tract of undeveloped land on Lake Monona has fallen silent about the parcel’s future. The historic property in Monona, known as San Damiano, is owned by the Norbertines of Saint Norbert Abbey in De Pere. In January, Norbertine officials said they were having the property assessed for possible sale.

A couple of hours before Chris Gernetzke was to become a priest, he could be found in a room at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Madison laying out the vestments he would wear at that evening’s ordination Mass. On June 26, Gernetzke and five other seminarians became priests, the largest ordination class in the diocese in 42 years. It was a culmination of years and years of study by the six men.

On Oct. 11, 1903, the Milwaukee Sentinel published an unusual story with a provocative headline: “Pastor Fenwick Is A White Man.” The article detailed how congregants in the city’s oldest black church, St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal, discovered their spiritual leader was white.