Blind Beggar in back of
Catholic Church in Rome, Italy

Today I attended a conference on Urban Ministry at local Catholic University. The main speaker was good as well as the three members of the panel that responded. During the question and answer period I asked the rhetorical question from last night’s posting: What to do about Bed Bugs and Greedy Landlords. Of course there was no answer for this question but a few of the panel made sympathetic remarks.

Afterwards two ladies from a St. Vincent De Paul Conference out of the city came up to me and asked how could they help? I told them we need more persons making home visits in North Central Milwaukee and more money for vouchers for beds, stoves and refrigerators. Where they lived was too far away from Milwaukee to make home visits practical but they do have money in a treasury due to a very profitable St. Vincent De Paul store they have it their area.

One of the ladies said they had made small donations to conferences like ours but next time they discuss what to do with their money she will suggest that the conference made a significant donation for beds, stoves and refrigerators.

This is the type of generosity that we were hoping to receive with the Sustainable Works of Mercy fund for the 1.1 million dollars the Catholic Church realized from closing another Catholic Church in North Central Milwaukee. The idea was ignored and the money is going into an endowment for ‘future church’. But the generosity of these two women made me think that if we only we ask there may be many persons out there willing to make home visits or give money for vouchers in North Central Milwaukee. How do we ask?

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.