Queen of Apostles, Pewaukee, underwent extensive interior renovations through support from the Love One Another campaign, prompting many parishioners to describe the transformed worship space as “a new church.” (Submitted photo)
First in a Catholic Herald series examining how the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Love One Another campaign is strengthening parishes, schools and ministries across southeastern Wisconsin.
The seeds planted by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s five-year Love One Another campaign are now bearing fruit in parishes, schools and other Catholic spaces across southeastern Wisconsin. The renovated worship space at Queen of Apostles Church, Pewaukee, provides inviting proof for Fr. Greg Greiten’s parishioners. “They say, ‘This is a new church,’” Fr. Greiten said. “They can’t believe the transformation that has taken place. They tell me, ‘Father, we just love this.’”
The archdiocese set the parish’s goal as part of the $150 million Love One Another campaign. It carved out $90 million of its goal to help southeastern Wisconsin’s 188 parishes meet their most immediate need, with the remainder targeted toward serving people with the greatest needs; the development of priests, deacons, seminarians and lay ministers; and empowering Catholic schools and other centers of prayer and ministry.
Leaders set Queen of Apostles Parish’s goal at $1,073,000. Dale Servais, the parish’s trustee secretary, said it was up to him and nearly two dozen other volunteers, including now-retired longtime Milwaukee sportscaster Tom Pipines, to help raise that money.
Servais said it was much easier to sell parish members on the concept of helping God’s church than it is to get people to buy drywall and other building materials he sells for a living. They focused on simply asking parish donors to do what they normally do in giving.
“We said, ‘This is what you have given in past years. You can either give that amount, or we can give something close to it,’” Servais said. “A lot of people just signed on for the full amount.”
Donors have pledged nearly $1.2 million to renovate a parish that had seen few updates since opening in 1998.
“We just needed a lot of redo, updating, and making it look and shine like it did when we first built the church,” Servais added, noting numerous needed changes including new LED lighting and removal of the pipe organ that was no longer in service.
“It was time to have a new audiovisual system put in place. It was time to paint the church and the entire building on the inside.”
Fr. Greiten said Patt Krejci, a daily communicant who is an interior decorator, became a Godsend in the process, particularly at a time when painters planned to simply put a white coat of paint on all the walls.
“I always sit in the morning Mass in the back pew when I get there early before Mass begins. She sat one pew ahead of me,” Fr. Greiten said. “I remember leaning forward and saying, ‘I need your help. They want to paint the church white.’ She started laughing. That was the beginning of us coming together and figuring (out) how to do this appropriately.”
He said the concept drawings that spawned from their work included a more earthy paint color to better feature the statue of Queen of Apostles. When Fr. Greiten saw the concept drawing, he was immediately struck by the transformation. “Oh, my gosh,” he recalled thinking. “It just popped. I realized then what paint could do.”
“Patt was the one. She did an amazing job of searching out possible carpet colors and doing all that.”
Servais said the renovation process also led to the discovery of stained-glass windows and statues that had been put in storage after a pair of Pewaukee parishes, St. Mary and Ss. Peter and Paul, became one. The addition and reframing of this holy artwork throughout has made parishioners stop in their tracks.
“An elderly gentleman came up to me and said, ‘Father, when you first started talking about the changes and needing to paint, I just thought it was not going to be that significant,’” Fr. Greiten said.
“He said, ‘Now that it’s finished, I can’t get over how beautiful and how it has drawn out the beauty of this church.’ You knew that was being echoed in the minds and hearts of many more people who have witnessed that transformation.”
“It’s the shock and awe watching people walk into the church and just mouth-drop open after we made all these changes,” said Servais.
“They looked around, and they had the biggest smiles on their faces when they walked in and saw everything come together.”
Both Fr. Greiten and Servais believe the newly renovated church showcases what campaigns like Love One Another can do, catalyzing parishioners to transform parishes.
“It’s just getting out there and talking to these people, tapping on shoulders and saying, ‘Hey, we know that you have the ability to help us out. Can you help?’ Every time that we’ve done that, they’ve stepped up and done an awesome job,” Servais said.
“This is what we worked so hard to get accomplished, and it worked.”
