Welcome to the website for Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
We hope our website proves to be a useful resource for you in learning about our parish community, finding events that are of interest to you, and a means to connect you to greater resources to further develop your faith life. Please use the "Parish Staff" page of this site to let us know if there is some way we can reach out to you better.
We try to be a welcoming and progressive faith community. We extend an invitation to you to join us any time to celebrate our faith. All are welcome!
To connect to some valuable resource sites visit our LINKS page.
To learn and be inspired visit the LIVING OUR FAITH site.
To discover family service opportunities see our current list.
For the latest event announcements, please visit our Announcements page.
For a complete listing of all activities in the parish, please see our Parish Calendar.
For the latest news, please download the Advent/Christmas Issue of the Lourdes News, our Parish newsletter.
Tragedy Strikes Haiti - Norwich Mission House Destoyed
As you are well aware, the nation of Haiti has been devastated by a massive earthquake. Many thousands are feared dead, including the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince. We join in prayer and solidarity with all the faithful in lamenting this tragic situation. Our parish has a twinning relationship with the Norwich Mission House in Port-au-Prince. The mission house was completely razed in the earthquake. They are without a headquarters to deliver the many valuable services they provide to the Haitian people.
Mission
Our mission is ’’helping Haitians help Haitians’’ by providing a permanent presence of support for Haitian-initiated projects in Haiti.
Who We Are
Haitian Ministries supports Haitian-run programs for the needy in Haiti; funds school scholarships; partners Haitian and American communities; offers immersion trips to Haiti; and operates a non-profit shop.
Programs
Haitian Ministries supports: two orphanages(one for 70 girls, another for 35 children with HIV/AIDS); a meal program serving 75 children; a scholarship program that funds full tuitions for 150 students in grades one through college; a medical clinic and medical missions to Haiti; 13 twinning relationships between American and Haitian communities; immersion-retreat visits to Haiti to build cultural awareness and exchange; and a non-profit gift shop of Haitian crafts and art that supports Haitian artists. This shop--Haiti’s Back Porch--is in Middletown, CT.
The parish will collect donations and forward them to the Office for Haitian Ministries. All checks chould be made payable to "Office of Haitian Ministries" for the quickest response.
To learn more about the Norwich Mission House or to donate online, please visit their site.
To learn more about our twinning relationship with the Norwich Mission House, visit our ministries page.
Immigration Reform - Your Help is Needed
The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has launched a postcard campaign to Congress in support of immigration reform. Genuine reform could be considered in 2010. This is an important public policy issue which impacts individuals and families of Our Lady of Lourdes and we encourage you to participate. You can sign your postcards online.
Join us! Becoming a Member...
To learn more about becoming a member of the Catholic Church or Our Lady of Lourdes parish, please click here.
The financial crisis and its impact on the parish
Did you miss this? Read the message.
YOUR parish is in need of YOUR help!
Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign
The parish is currently involved with a three-year capital campaign in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee through October 2011. Both the Archdiocese and Our Lady of Lourdes have developed case statements sharing the intended use of pledges made. CASE STATEMENTS: OLOL | Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Benchmark for OLOL set by Archdiocese (Equal to one year’s regular stewardship contributions): $696,370.00
The Campaign pledges will be split as follows:
OLOL - 60% | Archdiocese - 40% (Up to 125% of the benchmark)
OLOL - 80% | Archdiocese - 20% (126%-200% of the benchmark)
OLOL - 100% | Archdiocese 0% (Over 200% of the benchmark)
Pledges made to date: $564,258.31
Portion to OLOL: $340,974.99
Portion to Archdiocese: $223,283.32
OLOL Goal: $1,000,000.00 | % to Goal: 34.1%
% of Households Responded: 27.93%
% of Households Pledged: 22.01%
Building Committee Progress Update
The Building Committee has worked with Groth Design Group to develop some conceptual layouts and designs for our facility.
For background information on our work thus far, please view this slideshow.
Conceptual drawings: CONCEPT 1 FLOORPLAN | CONCEPT 2 FLOORPLAN | SITE PLAN | CONCEPTUAL EXTERIOR RENDERINGS
"SHAPING OUR SPACE"
This was a 4-week Education/Planning Series to help our parish community understand the role of the worship space in the context of our liturgy and help the planning committees gain insight on the community’s desires for the space. Flier
Update - 12/13/09: The plans for the worship space remodel project have been revealed. See Plans
Our Lady of Lourdes works in collaboration with St. Gregory the Great and St. Matthias Parishes. Together we aim to support one another in our ministries and offer our parishioners a wider variety of activities and ministries in a number of areas of parish life. To find out more about either parish, click onto their web sites:
St. Gregory the Great - http://www.stgregsmil.org/
St. Matthias - http://www.stmatthias-milw.org/
