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HOLY CROSS DIOCESAN CENTER: $4,000,000

The Holy Cross Diocesan Center is the home and critical resource of operations and formation for our Diocese. It provides the necessary space to house everything from Catholic Charities, a school for special needs students, a veterans assistance office, our Diocesan pastoral center operations, and housing for active and senior priests. The Center also offers appropriate space for our seminarians, continuing educational and spiritual opportunities for all parishioners and other Diocesan formation programs and celebrations.

In order to continue to serve and support the Catholic community throughout our 157 parishes, this nerve center of the Diocese is in need of care, restoration, and repair. The Holy Cross Center has many aging support mechanisms which are coming due for upgrading and replacement. By addressing our heating and cooling systems, providing a greater level of campus security, updating our electrical and Wi-Fi capability, we may continue to provide a safe, cost-efficient, comfortable, and prayerful environment for future generations.

In addition, the residential areas of the Holy Cross Center for our active and senior priests need updating. These areas house some of our priests who work in the pastoral center. They provide a comfortable and convenient space for our active priests to stay when they visit the Diocesan Center for meetings, Priest Unity Days, and Fall Ministry Conferences instead of reserving a local hotel room. The residential areas of the Center also provide housing for our senior priests. These men, who have given a lifetime of service, can reside at the Center with their fellow priests making it possible for them to continue serving sacramentally and assisting local Pastors while staying closely connected to the daily activities of the Diocese.

CHRIST THE KING CHAPEL WINDOWS RESTORATION: $1,000,000

At the heart of the Holy Cross Diocesan Center is the stunning centerpiece, Christ the King Chapel. Completed in 1951, the Chapel provides a spiritual home for all who enter and use the Center. The stained-glass windows that adorn the walls of the Chapel, were originally commissioned in 1949. These 32 lovely pieces of art were designed as a teaching tool. They tell the story of our faith, the lives of the Saints, and our own call to holiness. Since the initial purpose of the Christ the King Chapel was to be a seminary chapel, the windows appropriately carry imagery and instruction  geared toward seminary formation and the priesthood. Just as hundreds of seminarians gleaned inspiration from these windows in the past, today’s seminarians still celebrate Mass in the Chapel. Unfortunately, time has taken its toll over the past 70 years, and the window frames and structures have slowly deteriorated due to the challenging Wisconsin winters. Restoration and repair are desperately needed to preserve these beautiful symbols of our faith in glass for generations to come.