MC News

At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Hales Corners, Father Chuck Schramm has been known to talk politics in the pulpit, lifting up church teaching on such issues as immigration and the care of the poor and disadvantaged. He tries to present both sides, he says, but it’s lost him a few parishioners over the years. Still, he persists in the belief that one’s faith must inform every aspect of life, including the political.

After a year of eating the same rice, beans and tortillas; sleeping in a barn; contracting malaria and fleas; and riding a dilapidated tractor for transport, you’d think we’d be happy to fly home to the United States. It’s never that simple. Over the years, moving to and from the United States, Nicaragua, China and South Africa, we’ve seen much to love—and lament—on both sides of our nation’s borders.

Blackhawk Church, the large evangelical church on Madison’s Far West Side, is developing plans to add a third site, this one in Fitchburg. The exact location is yet to be determined, but church officials hope to be meeting in at least a temporary site in Fitchburg by January, said the Rev. John Rosensteel, a 14-year Blackhawk pastor who lives in Fitchburg and will lead the Fitchburg site.

Religious leaders and faith-based organizations responded to Thursday’s Supreme Court decision on health care, calling it alternately a “triumph of the common good” and “deeply wrong.”

A South Side church plans to convert 4,000 square feet of its current building, including its sanctuary, into a community center for one of Madison’s most racially and culturally diverse neighborhoods. Fountain of Life Church and its Nehemiah Community Development Corp. announced in a festive groundbreaking ceremony Friday evening that its existing facility at 633 W. Badger Road will undergo a $300,000 renovation to become the South Madison Center for Culture and Community, described as a neighborhood gathering place to bring various cultures together.

Everett Mitchell has a simple — and compelling — reason for why he gives so much of his time doing community service work. “Because somebody gave it to me,” he says. Growing up in inner-city Fort Worth, Texas, Mitchell, now the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s director of community relations, says the reason he made to college and in to a career was because of people who took time out to help him get ahead. Mitchell also serves as pastor at Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church on the east side of Madison.

MADISON — Wisconsin’s bishops reaffirmed their opposition to a federal mandate that all health insurance plans provide coverage at no cost for contraceptive and sterilization services. In a June 15 letter to officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the bishops renewed their argument that the religious exemption to the mandate, first announced last year, is flawed. The HHS mandate is one of several limits on religious liberty that Catholics will highlight during the upcoming Fortnight for Freedom. This 14-day observance runs from June 21 through July 4, 2012, and is dedicated to prayer, catechesis, and…

Main Street in Janesville, Wisconsin was buzzing today as a crowd of a couple of hundred people gathered in front of Rep. Paul Ryan’s home office, waiting for a bus to arrive. The bus carried four nuns on a tour across the Midwest, challenging both the policy and the theology of Ryan’s budget plan for the U.S. The crowd and the bus were far different than the scene on Monday in Janesville when Mitt Romney’s bus and its entourage rolled into town as part of the Republican presidential candidates’ sweep across the heartland.

MIDDLETON — The annual African Market at Sunset Ridge Elementary School in Middleton had double meaning because the profits were donated to help students at a needy school in Africa. The first graders make items every year to sell at the market, which was started at Northside Elementary in Middleton and is patterned after those in Africa as a way for students to learn more about the country. This philanthropic endeavor also helps students learn how they can give back, said Karin Koenig, a first grade teacher at Sunset Ridge. Each year, the first grade classrooms choose what group will…

Summer vacation is underway and children have time for exploring new things, including faith in Jesus Christ. With summer camps, 5-Day Clubs, and Vacation Bible School, opportunities abound for sharing the gospel message. Madison has a cool Christian camp in its own backyard, the Lake Waubesa Bible Camp, on the eastern shore of Lake Waubesa. The first camp for grades 2-4 begins tomorrow.