Catholics and Lutherans, who have found a few things to disagree about over the centuries, found something much more recently to agree on — and in Delta County, to boot.

Members of the denominations joined forces to open the new Women’s Recovery Home in Escanaba. The home is for women, especially mothers with addictions, to learn to live soberly and then return to their families.

“This has been a great opportunity for Catholic Social Services and Bethany Lutheran to provide these services to the city of Escanaba,” said Kyle Rambo, director of Catholic Social Services of the Upper Peninsula. “We could not have done this without the support of the city of Escanaba that clearly understood the need for recovery housing.”

Bishop Katherine Finegan, bishop of the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said she was happy that the church could provide a “safe space for transformation” where the residents could be “held by a community of faith.”

Because it’s expected that the need for the home will be greater than the rooms available, priority will go to pregnant women or those who are at risk of losing their children, which follows state of Michigan requirements.

The assessments from Rambo and Finegan are spot on, we believe. Hats off to both groups for taking a tough issue on, head on.