Wisconsin State Journal

By Barry Adams – Wisconsin State Journal – The $33 million transformation of St. Bernard Catholic Church into a cathedral for the Diocese of Madison has just encountered a $2 million cost overrun. Only this one is covered by insurance. Almost six months after a clay-tile roof was installed on the 99-year-old Atwood Avenue building, the scaffolding is going back up after last week’s hailstorm shattered many of the tiles, dented adjacent copper roofs and trim and even damaged some of the wood sheathing under the tile. Read more of this story.

By Chris Rickert – Wisconsin State Journal – A year after he was shot four times at Abundant Life Christian School — including twice in the head — Samy Garduno-Martinez is able to talk, is regaining his memory and is relearning how to walk. It’s a recovery that his physicians didn’t think was possible, but that his family never stopped believing in. “I always say that when the science says no, God says yes,” said Samy’s mother, Gabriela Martinez, who ascribes Samy’s ongoing recovery to “many miracles.” Read more of this story.

By Chris Rickert, Wisconsin State Journal – The success of Dane County’s private voucher and independent charter schools on the state report cards released this week varied greatly, with scores oftentimes reflecting differences in student body demographics. Among the 10 schools rated, scores ranged from a high of 84.7 at Eastside Evangelical Lutheran Elementary in Madison, to a low of 56.3 at Westside Christian School in Middleton. The scores correspond to a rating of “significantly exceeds expectations” for Eastside and “meets few expectations” for Westside Christian. Read more of this story.

By Nicole Pollack – Wisconsin State Journal – Luther Memorial Church on Madison’s Near West Side is asking the developer of a planned 15-story student apartment building to compensate it for what it projects will be lost output from the church’s new solar panels and damage to its century-old sandstone exterior by leaving the church covered in shadow for much of the day. The apartment building would be taller than the peak of the church roof, and church officials said it would shade the church — and the church’s solar panels — far more than the four-story structure the building…

By Christ Rickert – Wisconsin State Journal – Becky Mack had a rough start to life. Raised along with her four siblings by a drug-addicted, “nomad” father, she suffered abuse and was intermittently removed from his care by child welfare workers until she went into foster care for good at the age 8 when the family moved to Madison. But 28 years later, Mack is proof that a rough start doesn’t have to define the finish. With some help from sources both earthly and divine, Mack got her high school diploma, then her certified nursing assistant license, then her nursing…

By Nicole Pollack – Wisconsin State Journal – The former Lakeview Moravian Community Church has stood for about 70 years on a triangular block in Madison’s Eastmorland neighborhood. Now empty, the single-story building at 3565 Tulane Ave. will soon be demolished for 26 lower-cost apartments and a new Eastmorland Community Center. The church’s two congregations, known collectively as Common Grace, have relocated temporarily to St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Monona but will return after construction to worship in the community center’s multi-use performance space. Upwards of 75 people showed up Wednesday to celebrate the church and community center breaking ground…

By Barry Adams – Wisconsin State Journal – The mission here is care and compassion. And over the years, Madison’s oldest church congregation has lived up to its charge, behind and beyond the red doors that stand out amid the weathered sandstone at the corner of West Washington Avenue and Capitol Square. Grace Episcopal Church hosted the city’s men’s homeless shelter from 1984 to 2020 and continues to minister to the homeless. The church has operated a food pantry for more than 50 years, offers free concerts and has undertaken mission trips to Haiti. But caring for its own building…

By Chris Rickert – Wisconsin State Journal – Over nearly 40 years working with Madison-based InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Scott Bessenecker has helped send thousands of college students on trips to “slum communities” overseas as part of programs to build bridges between those of us living in developed, rich countries like the United States and those of us who don’t. The point is not to proselytize, Bessenecker says, and not even necessarily to help people dig wells or build community centers or do other immediately tangible good works like in the Peace Corps. Instead, the summerlong programs might be called “incarnational,”…

By Samara Kalk Derby – Wisconsin State Journal – On the day when at least 250,000 people paid their respects to Pope Francis at his funeral in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Catholics in the Diocese of Madison gathered to remember him. Roughly 350 mourners, including about 20 local clergy, attended a special Saturday Mass led by Bishop Donald Hying at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church on Madison’s West Side. Read more of this story.

By Nicole Pollack – Wisconsin State Journal – The Salvation Army of Dane County won city approval in 2019 to demolish its shelter for homeless women and families on East Washington Avenue and convert the site into a campus with office space, more beds and some low-income apartments. Half a decade later, the 44-unit Shield Apartments has been completed at the intersection of East Mifflin and North Blount streets. But the old shelter, an aging former Catholic school, still stands at 630 E. Washington Ave., just east of Downtown. It’s the only drop-in shelter for women and families in the…