@Bishop Morlino and his hope for a @MadisonDiocese Cathedral

The funeral for Bp. Morlino will be on 4 December.  He will be buried immediately after the funeral in Madison’s Resurrection cemetery.

It was Bp. Morlino’s desire to provide the city and diocese with a new Cathedral church once again, which would have a crypt chapel for their bishops.

The old cathedral burned down, due to arson, over a decade ago and has not been replaced.  Some of the larger parish churches have served in the interim for large events such as ordinations.

Frankly, it tugged my heart that the bishop had no cathedra in a cathedral. For this reason, the TMSM, which I guide, caused their to be built in the chapel of the former seminary a substantial, but still temporary throne.

To give you a sense of the sort of bishop he was, he shelved plans for a new cathedral in order to raise money for a foundation that would pay for formation for seminarians for the priesthood.  When he took over the diocese, there were about 6 seminarians – total – and that was what was budgeted.  However, under Bp. Morlino vocations soared to a high of some 34, and 24 now.  As you can imagine, a budget for 6 was not adequate.  He shelved his cathedral to build a “priests for the future” campaign.  It was quite successful.  He left that aspect in good shape.  He also ordained 40 men for the diocese in his time.

The cathedral was next.

A cathedral, with a crypt, was a great wish of his.   It really must be carried forward now.  Of course nothing can be done until adequate money is raised to start the project.

There is a Bishop Robert C. Morlino Memorial Fund, which aims at building the new cathedral and that crypt chapel.

Will you be generous?

Click here to make a donation online.

Send snail mail and checks made out to

Bishop Robert C. Morlino Memorial Fund

c/o The Catholic Diocese of Madison Foundation, Inc.
702 S. High Point Road,  Suite 223
Madison, WI 53719

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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3 Comments

  1. Simon_GNR says:

    Was the cathedral that burnt down uninsured? If not, what has the diocese done with the insurance pay-out? Presumably, they used it to augment the fund for the training of seminarians.

    It’s a real shame if a diocese hasn’t got a church worthy of being its cathedral. (For instance, the Diocese of Dublin still hasn’t got a proper cathedral, and continues to make do with the pro-cathedral in Dublin.) I hope the Diocese of Madison is soon able to start building a great new cathedral in which Bishop Morlino’s body can be reverently interred.

  2. jaykay says:

    They don’t take donations from outside the USA. Pity, but I respect that. One can offer something else for Bp. Morlino, may God rest his noble soul. One will.

    Simon_GNR: yes, the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin makes do with the beautiful early 19thC Greek revival Pro-Cathedral, albeit the Sanctuary wreckovation in the early 80s was unfortunate. The two medieval Cathedrals (yep, two) are Anglican. Come the glorious day of the triumph of the True Church, we’ll be embarrassed with riches (removes tongue from cheek… but not that much)

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