Madison’s Catholic Multicultural Center is an unassuming place. Situated on the city’s South Side, a drab brick building greets visitors to one of Catholicism’s humblest outposts.

In this and many other ways it is the embodiment of the impoverished mission community envisioned by the earliest proponents of Christian social justice: four full-time staff members serve as a core for over 800 volunteers, and guests are often unemployed or struggling with bills. Services are crude, but pragmatic. Volunteers provide career counseling, education and a food pantry seven days a week.

The center also provides basic health services. In particular, stories of the health clinic’s relevance to a hard-hit community abound. Some patients, suffering from mental health difficulties, have to be urged by center staff to seek medical treatment, such as the woman so frightened by a lump on her neck she didn’t want to get it treated until a CMC nurse agreed to sit with her throughout the process.

Budgets are squeezed even in the best of times, but after having been nearly forced to shut its doors, the Catholic Multicultural Center has a leaner reincarnation.

To keep their doors open, the center relies on a lease which costs one dollar per year. Their operating budget, which the CMC’s leadership predicted would be $350,000, ended up at a meager $280,000. Half of this, $140,000, is being provided by the diocese, with the rest coming from donors affiliated with Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish.

Contrast the CMC with the impending expansion of St. Paul’s Catholic Church on Library Mall. St. Paul’s was never appealing – one former Herald writer referred to it as a concrete Borg – and its tomb-like qualities become ever-more apparent as winter sets in.

But in the coming years, St. Paul’s will undergo a metamorphosis, spending an estimated $45 million dollars not only to change the building’s image, but to redefine its mission. The new facility will house around 200 new residents, a 400-600 seat chapel, a dining hall, as well as conference and music rooms. Elements of the old 1908 Cathedral will be preserved, but the structure itself will bear little resemblance to the original.

St. Paul’s is projected to be one of the Catholic Church’s major marks on the Madison community. At an estimated 14 stories, it will certainly be the most visible. And few are arguing that St. Paul’s should forego improvements.

But during the planning phase for the new St. Paul’s, when its leadership formulated a strategy for soliciting $45 million in donations and a public relations campaign to placate neighbors, the Diocese of Madison’s staff was cut by one-third. This included the entire budget for the CMC, which was forced to close for two months until donors rallied to ensure it stayed open.

And while the finances of St. Paul’s are completely independent of those of the diocese, it would seem that such by any standard, aesthetic priorities are far outweighed by the much more physical demands of poorer parishioners.

The renovation of St. Paul’s will probably substantially benefit its surrounding neighborhood, and not only through some vague notion of greater spirituality: part of the funding will go to social programs which actively target those in need. But the vast bulk of the new money will go toward a makeover in a time when almost every level of government is either slashing services to the poor or eliminating them entirely.

The Catholic Church has been one of the most consistent safety nets for people in need, and if anything, its obligation is greater now.

I was never the best of Catholics. These days, I don’t consider myself one at all. Between my old priest protesting that the rate of pedophilia was no higher among clergymen than lay people, or the Pope telling African Catholics that condoms might actually increase their risk of contracting HIV, I was given plenty of reasons over the years to take my waning spirituality elsewhere.

But for every accusation the cynics can throw at Catholicism’s dogmatic side, there is an act of compassion, motivated by faith, which proves us wrong. The Catholic Multicultural Center is one such example. Instead of looking up, St. Paul’s should look around.

Sam Clegg ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in economics.