DSA supports over 30 ministries in the diocese
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Programs, Cathedral focus of special three-year campaign |
SUPERIOR --Over the next several months, parishioners in the diocese will be asked to participate in the annual Diocesan Services Appeal. DSA funds make it possible for the diocese to offer programs that benefit people of all ages. There are currently more than 30 programs serving 35,000 Catholic families in 112 parishes,
Children and teens are served in several ways. The 17 Catholic schools provide a solid education, with a strong Christian identity for nearly 2,900 students in prekindergarten through sixth grade. Parish religious education programs give several thousand more students a solid grounding in the Catholic faith. There are also various parish youth ministries and other programs such as Teens Encounter Christ that strengthen a young person's faith and relationship with Christ.
The Newman Centers at the University of Wisconsin campuses in River Falls and Superior minister to university students, Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College students and other young adults.
DSA funds are also used to foster vocations. Providing a quality education to seminarians in the diocese is one important way. In addition, vocations to the permanent diaconate are supported through an intensive education and formation program for four to five years prior to ordination. There are currently more than deacons ministering in the diocese.
Vocations for lay people are also fostered through a two-year lay ministry training program, educational opportunities for catechists and youth ministers, parish training for lay leaders of prayer, lectors, eucharistic ministers and all other liturgical ministries.
Through the ministry of deacons and lay ministers, the elderly, the poor and the sick are served on a parish by parish level. The Catholic Charities Bureau also provides a wide range of services to the handicapped and the elderly.
Through the Respect Life Office the diocese supports life from conception through old age. That includes issues of abortion, the role of medical technology in conception, cochlea punishment assisted suicide, euthanasia and other ways in which life is threatened.
For information about the DSA, or any of the programs it supports, call 715-392-2937.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2002