This website was created as part of an initiative led by Catholics living near Rep. Paul Ryan's district in Southeastern Wisconsin. At the center of the effort are two Franciscans: Rhett Engelking, OFS (a Secular Franciscan)  and Fr. Michael Crosby, OFM Cap.

Rhett is a Secular Franciscan who resides at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Milwaukee, WI. Rhett has a degree in Community Counseling and has worked at Rogers Memorial Hospital for 7 years. He is a former live-in volunteer at Casa Maria House of Hospitality, an emergency and transitional housing shelter in Milwaukee.

"I had always professed to be an orthodox Catholic, and I cherry picked the teachings of the Church to defend that identity right up till I found a true conversion.  I was born again through service at Casa Maria, where I lived among hungry children, broken families, desperate addicts, and all of the "least of these" in Milwaukee. I experienced the "Catholic" identity as part of a greater whole, and this greater Body was anointed to bring "glad tidings to the poor." Mental illness is the cruelest poverty.  I struggle to understand how $2.4 trillion cuts to Medicaid, $134 billion in cuts to food assistance programs, and increased taxes on single mothers will bring a Path to Prosperity to patients recovering from mental illness. When the nations support for the mentally ill disappears, tragic things happen. I pray our political leaders can see things from the perspective of the most vulnerable."