MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Faced with a surging number of seminarians, the Madison Catholic Diocese is turning to its parishioners to help fund the training of priests.
The diocese has seen its priests-in-training soar from six in 2003 to the current 33. To educate current and future seminarians, the Madison diocese says it needs $30 million.
Church-goers have responded with vigor, the Wisconsin State Journal (https://bit.ly/1E7mTrehttps://bit.ly/1E7mTre ) reported. The campaign began last fall and will continue through the end of this year. Although the campaign has yet to expand to all churches in the 11-county diocese, parishioners already have pledged more than $28 million.
“I couldn’t be more pleased,” Bishop Robert Morlino said in an interview. Morlino gives immense credit to the diocese’s 110 priests who have been rolling out the campaign in their parishes.
The diocese declined to pinpoint a per-seminarian cost. But calculations, based on interviews and available data, suggest the diocese spends $250,000 to $300,000 to train each new priest - figures diocesan officials did not contest, the newspaper reported.
Morlino has made priestly vocations - the spiritual call to serve - a priority. He increased the position of director of vocations to full time, and he routinely promotes the priesthood at functions.
Becoming a priest typically involves eight to 10 years of higher education and culminates in a master’s of divinity degree.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The call is going out for blood donors in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Memorial Blood Centers said its supply of O-negative blood is dangerously low across its 11 donor sites in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Spokesman Larry Silber tells Minnesota Public Radio News (https://bit.ly/1N60fSFhttps://bit.ly/1N60fSF ) the organization has been able to keep up with the demand for O-negative blood so far, but more donors are urgently needed. A combination of cold weather, vacations and the flu season has led to the decrease in donations.
The shortage is particularly critical because O-negative is a universal blood type that can be used in emergencies.
But O-negative donors are also rare. According to the American Red Cross, only 7 percent of people in the U.S. have O-negative blood.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - A 21-year-old man is facing felony charges in the beating of two clerks at a Milwaukee gas station.
Dominick Smith was charged Friday with two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety. He’s accused of attacking two convenience store employees on Feb. 21 after they accused him of shoplifting.
A video recorded by a witness shows the two clerks grabbing baseball bats and attempting to stand guard at the front door. The employees are seen chasing the suspect outside after he kicks the door. The suspect then wrestles a wooden bat away from one of the employees and uses it to beat both of the clerks.
Court records show one of the employees suffered a skull fracture, while the other required 19 stitches to close two head wounds.
Online court documents don’t list an attorney for Smith.
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SHEBOYGAN FALLS, Wis. (AP) - Officials say a teenager was seriously injured after he got caught in a piece of farm machinery in Sheboygan Falls.
According to the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department, the 17-year-old male was working on an auger in a silo late Sunday afternoon when he got caught in the equipment. Department officials arrived at the scene and were able to remove him from the machinery.
The teen was airlifted to Flight for Life to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa. Further information about his condition wasn’t available as of Sunday night.
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