Pastors & Staff

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church shared a post.

2 weeks ago

Let us come together and listen in prayer for our response to the shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton. Bishop Jeff Haines will lead us as we pray for peace, a dismantling of unjust structures, healing, and the conversion of heart needed to end violence and hatred. All are welcome to attend this service at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

Sponsored by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Franciscan Peacemakers, Family of Four Eastside Parishes, and Urban Initiative MKE. ... See MoreSee Less

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Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church

3 weeks ago

Our well attended Caregivers Support Group meets once a month, and our next scheduled date is Saturday, August 3 from 8:00-9:30 am in the Old St. Mary Parish Center (835 N Milwaukee St). This group will be treated to a light breakfast. Caregivers need care too! When we allow others to support us, we will find we can do much more in supporting and encouraging those who are in our care. Please consider joining our Caregivers Support Group and let us help! Contact Terri Balash, Director of Pastoral Care, at 469-6173 or *protected email* if you plan on attending or need further information. ... See MoreSee Less

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Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church

3 weeks ago

Meet Your Family Faith Formation Team!
Wednesday, July 31, 7:00 - 8:00 pm in Three Holy Women-Holy Rosary Hall (2011 N Oakland Ave)

Sunday, August 4, 10:00 -11:00 am in the Old St. Mary Parish Center (835 N Milwaukee St)

With the retirement of long-time ESCYM Director, Ralph Stewart, there have been several changes in the way we will serve families as it relates to religious formation and our Family Program. All are invited to a Family Program listening session with our new combined religious formation team: Chad Griesel (Pastoral Associate of Formation and Justice), Anh Clausen (Director of Family Ministry and Religious Formation), Nino Rebholz (Associate Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry) and members of our Family Ministry Team: Ken Gardinier; Rachel McGrew; Brianna Pribek; Mamie Riyeff and Nadine Stoltz.

To best serve you and your family, we encourage parents and youth (middle and high schoolers) to attend one of the listening sessions to give your feedback and allow us to answer your questions so that we can best grow as followers of Jesus and witnesses to the love of God in our community!

If you missed the announcement of these changes, you can read about them here: www.ssppmilw.org/staff-changes/ ... See MoreSee Less

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Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church

3 weeks ago

We had an incredible first night at the Cathedral during Bastille days for OremusMKE. Thousands of candles were lit as many people of all faith walks were invited inside. Join us this Saturday, July 27, from 7:00pm-10:00pm as we invite our neighbors in to see St. Hedwig Church (Brady & Humboldt) during Brady Street Festival and to light a candle for peace. All are welcome to come and pray in the church. We are also in need of volunteers who can help us to welcome and pray with the hundreds of guests we will have. Contact Chad Griesel at *protected email* to volunteer.

“A Church which ‘goes forth’ is a Church whose doors are open…Often it is better simply to slow down, to put aside our eagerness in order to see and listen to others, to stop rushing from one thing to another and to remain with someone who has faltered along the way.” Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium ... See MoreSee Less

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Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church

3 weeks ago

The monthly collection of donations for St. Vincent de Paul will be July 27-28. We are in need of bath towels and cereal bowls. Other household items such as blankets, sheets, and kitchen ware are always appreciated. Thank you for your help!

This month’s Love Story:
53206. How do you tell a story about the friends we meet in the poorest neighborhoods in the city? 53206, the zip code that has the highest incarceration rate of people of color in Milwaukee. It is ‘a food desert’; no grocery stores as we understand them and one small food pantry. In short, 53206 is a part of the ‘hood’, a colloquialism camouflaging the truth that Milwaukee is one of the most segregated cities in the nation.
53206 is not a district within our Saint Vincent de Paul conference. We go there because the local parish, Saint Martin de Porres, cannot field enough volunteers to respond to the number of calls from its own district. Our family of parishes helps out, with volunteers and a little extra money to provide the necessities that their parish cannot afford.
The houses we visit are often without furniture, save for a bed or mattresses on the floor, a kitchen table, sometimes a couch. And always a TV, which in almost all of the visits is turned on, rather loudly at that. The TV provides the only available diversion and doubles as a babysitter. The windows facing the street are covered with sheets or blinds all seasons of the year. Covering the windows provides insulation and privacy, inhibiting a potential thief from eyeing anything worth stealing. Usually, no lights are on. Occasionally, we have had to use our cellphone lights to fill out the vouchers. If there are small children, there are few toys. The living quarters, one floor of a flat, occasionally a single-family home, sometimes tucked into the back of a yard, are in poor condition. Do not call the landlord. The landlord will not fix anything. Do not call the building inspector. If he or she writes up the violation, eviction results. That is illegal, but who can afford the time, let alone the money, to fight it. Also, the occupants stay indoors at night. Very frequently, they report hearing shots in the evening hours.
The aspect of their lives that I find most heartbreaking is the answer to my question, “How long have you lived here?” Usually, the answer is in months, not years. I am reminded of the stories in Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond, in which the people the author followed were stuck in an endless cycle from rental units to homelessness or living with relatives to rental units.
By now, you may be asking when does the love story begin. The love begins with meeting our friends in their homes under the conditions I have summarized, who are fully engaged with their own lives and the lives of their children. They meet us as one meets a neighbor doing them a favor, with a friendly informality. They are grateful but not fawning. We meet both men and women. They do not give up. They are an inspiration.
Some of our friends are single; others are single-mother families with children. Many receive disability payments. We ask them about their children. The youngest ones, who are at home with their mother, are well cared for and are entirely comfortable being themselves while we are there. They are too young to be troubled by matters of skin color. Thus, interacting with the young ones is bittersweet. The older children are more reticent but smile when they know a bed or a dresser awaits them.
Some mothers have taken in relatives, because their poverty is extreme or their children may need to be separated from an unhealthy school or neighborhood environment. Other times grandmothers are on hand to help. More than a few of our friends have been homeless from time to time and are forced to depend on the largesse of friends or relatives, who also have few resources.
Others are engaged in part-time programs at MATC in order to enhance their ability to earn income. Some work at jobs with modest pay.
The love that I feel is kindled by the demonstration of these people’s courage and persistence despite or maybe because of the conditions they live in. For us as volunteers the love can persist only by our praying for and remembering them. I leave each meeting heartened by their gratitude and their fortitude. At the same time I am saddened that these people live in the conditions they do, and that their young children will soon understand how our society treats persons of color. With the negative attitude of much of our society toward them, there are few, if any, avenues of escape.
The favor they have done to us is that by inviting us into their homes they have given us a glimpse of the fortitude and courage it takes to live in grinding poverty. It is society’s obligation to see that their living conditions do not persist. The people of 53206 also remind me that my burdens are much lighter than I might have thought.
~Tom Whipp, Volunteer for Six Saints Saint Vincent de Paul ... See MoreSee Less

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Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church

1 month ago

Join us for OremusMKE this Friday, July 12, from 7:00pm-10:00pm as we invite our neighbors in to see the beautiful Cathedral (812 N Jackson St) and to light a candle for peace. All are welcome to come and pray in the church. We are also looking for volunteers who can help us to welcome and pray with the hundreds of guests we will have. Contact Nino Rebholz at *protected email* to volunteer or ask any questions.

“A Church which ‘goes forth’ is a Church whose doors are open…Often it is better simply to slow down, to put aside our eagerness in order to see and listen to others, to stop rushing from one thing to another and to remain with someone who has faltered along the way.” Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium ... See MoreSee Less

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