February 9, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Last year, Catholic Services Appeal pledges exceeded the $9.3 million goal, and its leaders are hopeful that the 2017 appeal will have an even greater impact. This Catholic Spirit 4-page section highlights the annual appeal’s wide reach through snapshot features on the 17 ministry areas it funds. The 2017 CSA kicked off Feb. 5 with an event at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. — The Catholic Spirit
2A • The Catholic Spirit
Better storytelling helped 2016 CSA reach goal By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit
T
he Catholic Services Appeal is kicking off its 2017 campaign with a new initiative seeking a broad impact: $1,000 scholarships for eligible students attending Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The appeal will continue to support 11 of the archdiocese’s neediest Catholic elementary schools, as it has in the past, but this allows the appeal’s education dollars to touch more people and parishes, said Jennifer Beaudry, Catholic Services Appeal Foundation executive director. “It’s important for us to spread out the reach of the CSA to all of the schools,” she said, adding that the From left, Deacons Nicholas Froehle, Matthew Shireman, Paul CSAF plans to award 400 of the new scholarships. Baker and Brandon Theisen talk between classes at the The scholarships join an array of other ways the CSA St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in May 2016. SPS is one of supports 17 ministry areas in the archdiocese. Like 17 ministry areas funded by the annual Catholic Services recent years, it aims to raise $9.3 million. Those funds Appeal. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit support 16 ministries within the archdiocese, plus rebates granted back to parishes that meet 90 percent of testimonials from the folks that receive this money their appeal goals. about how they’re using it and how it’s needed.” Last year, Catholics pledged $9,393,800, according to They’re also finding that potential donors understand the Plymouth-based CSAF’s unaudited preliminary that the CSAF is a separate organization from the campaign numbers. The foundation has collected more archdiocese, and they are no longer expressing concerns than $9,070,000 of those funds, and expects only to that CSA funds might be entangled in the archdiocese’s receive 25 percent of the bankruptcy. The bigger challenge remaining uncollected pledges. It is now updating donor lists and will fund some of its ministries at “It’s just really a connecting with Catholics who 100 percent, while others will testament to how hard aren’t members of parishes or receive 95 percent of their goal who don’t write checks, funding. the people in the including millennials. Last year’s appeal also saw 350 That’s why it’s turned greater parishes, the pastors and attention more people donate than in 2015, to online giving, which is the first time donors have including its participation in the business increased in years. That stemmed a Minnesota’s annual Give to the trend that required fewer people to administrators worked Max Day in November. They first give more to meet goal. The uptick to make this happen ... raised funds through the online in donors is a welcome sign of giving day in 2015, garnering change, and CSAF leaders hope it’s and the real generous $7,000. In 2016, they brought in a harbinger for future appeals. more than $30,000. spirit of the people in “We feel like our message is They’re also working to help really resonating with pastors and parishes meet individual goals. the archdiocese.” parishioners that we are a separate Last year, 124 of the 187 parishes organization [from the Jennifer Beaudry in the archdiocese met their goal, archdiocese] and that we’re and the CSAF plans to pay out helping thousands and thousands $1,818,886 to parishes. of people within this archdiocese,” said CSAF Board Beaudry attributes the success to parish leaders and President Tim Healy. Catholics’ sense of charity. After the 2015 CSA fell short of its goal, Healy “Personally, I did not think we were going to hit the attributes the 2016 appeal’s success to the foundation’s [overall] goal in pledged amount this year — I thought efforts to better tell the stories of the difference appeal we were going to get close — so it’s amazing to me that dollars make. The CSAF has boosted its presence on we did hit the goal,” she said. “It’s just really a testament social media, launched a regular newsletter and to how hard the people in the parishes, the pastors and provided individualized updates for parishes to monitor the business administrators worked to make this happen progress toward their goals. The foundation’s website ... and the real generous spirit of the people in the www.csafspm.org includes photos and testimonies from archdiocese.” people who have benefited from appeal-funded The CSAF aims to increase the $9.3 million overall ministries. goal within the next few years and eventually fund The foundation has also made a point of visiting the more ministries. Ultimately, Beaudry said, it’s about ministries the appeal funds, which has also made an service and supporting the archdiocese, nodding to the impression on CSAF leaders. 2017 theme, “support.” “Our job ... is to tell the stories of these 17 ministries “People are hearing the stories, and they’re that can’t raise this money on their own,” said CSAF responding, and we just need to continue to get the Board Member Greg Pulles. “Every week we’re pumping message out on all the good that we as a collective out Facebook posts, every month we’re pumping out an archdiocese are doing together, and it’s exciting,” Healy e-mail, and we’re gathering more and more and more added. “And our hope is that we can do more.”
2016
2015
2014
Collected $9.946
Pledged $10.242
Goal $9.3
Collected $8.717
Pledged $9.042
Goal $9.3
Colllected $9.070
Pledged $9.393
In millions, CSA goals with unaudited dollars pledged and raised since 2014, the year after the Catholic Services Appeal Foundation was established. Numbers for 2016 are based on figures collected through Dec. 31.
Goal $9.3
BY THE NUMBERS
February 9, 2017
VENEZUELAN MISSION Goal: $204,163 The parish of Jesucristo Resucitado’s work stretches beyond the spiritual to meet the practical day-to-day needs of many of its parishioners. It runs a medical clinic and laboratory, dentist office, soup kitchen and emergency assistance programs. It also partners with a neighboring parish to operate a shelter for orphans and homeless people. It also has a church, parish center and chapels. It’s all part of a mission that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis started in Venezuela in 1970, and has been under the leadership of Father Greg Schaffer since 1994. Father James Peterson currently assists him in serving the 11 neighborhoods within the parish boundaries that are home to approximately 65,000 people. It’s an area that has long suffered from a high unemployment rate, but its people’s problems have been compounded by Venezuela’s poor economy, which turned sour in 2014 due to a severe drop in the price of oil, the country’s main export. “There is a lot of suffering going on right now, a lot of political turmoil,” Father Greg Schaffer told The Catholic Spirit. “That’s difficult.” http://venezuela. archspm.org
A student from Good Shepherd School in Golden Valley listens during class Jan. 18. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Goal: $1,375,000 “The impact that we have on scholars’ lives and the exposure to the faith is immeasurable,” Benito Matias, principal of Ascension Catholic School in Minneapolis, told the CSAF. He was speaking of his school, but the same applies to all Catholic elementary schools, which the appeal supports through operations funding and scholarships. Although non-Catholic schools may offer similar academic opportunities as Catholic schools, Matias says Catholic schools uniquely integrate faith in students’ study and prayer, and in the behavior teachers model. “We’re constantly talking about faith and ... how Jesus plays a role in all the things we do, from our daily announcements each morning to just one-on-one conversations or meditations,” he said. “It’s very important to us.” www.archspm.org/departments/schools
February 9, 2017 The Catholic Spirit • 3A
AMERICAN INDIAN MINISTRY Goal: $200,000 “I’m especially concerned that my children and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren have the opportunity to learn about our heritage and continue to share that.” Sylvia Spence
College students gather at St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center Aug. 21, 2016. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit
ST. LAWRENCENEWMAN CENTER Goal: $264,000 Research shows that by the time young adults graduate from college, they’ve made significant decisions about the role faith will have in their life, said Brother Kenneth Appuzo, chaplain of St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center at the University of Minnesota, which is why his work to connect those 18-to-20-year-olds to their faith is so important. “We need to be out on the campus in the places where they live and they’re comfortable and they learn, and meet them kind of where they’re at — literally, physically — but also spiritually, emotionally [and] socially,” he told the CSAF. A longtime fixture on the U of M’s East Bank campus, the center has adopted a fresh vision under Brother Appuzo’s direction, but he said the culture makes “less and less room for faith.” The students who arrive on campus with a strong faith need resources and relationships to help it continue to grow, and the students who have little or no faith need opportunities to meet God and the Church, he said. “We need to be able to, especially in a relational way, get close enough to them [so] that they feel like the Church is offering personal attention to them,” he added. To that end, the center offers a “spiritual home” with the sacraments, community and more than 15 annual events for the U’s estimated 10,000 Catholics. https://umncatholic.com
PRISON CHAPLAINS Goal: $45,345 Deacon Tim Zinda has worked for years in prison ministry, offering spiritual counsel and resources to people serving time in correctional facilities, but last year he collaborated with parish leaders to try something new — working with people after they leave prison and transition back to regular life. Called “Embrace,” the program not only helps ex-offenders with practical needs, such as housing, food and clothes, but it also provides them with a community through the parish. After his 2016 release after his third time in prison, Edward Stahlmann said working with the Embrace program is helping him avoid prison continuing to be “a revolving door.” “It’s not just about resources, [but] that’s a big part of it,” he told the CSAF. “It’s a community of people, so every time that I have an issue that comes up, there’s people I can call or people I can email and say, ‘Hey, I’m really struggling with this right now. Can you help me through this?’”
Based at the Minneapolis parish of Gichitwaa Kateri, the archdiocese’s American Indian Ministry serves about 1,000 Catholic families. The actual reach, however, is broader, said Sylvia Spence, who has been involved in the ministry for more than 30 years. “I think we evangelize people that even aren’t in our communities at times because of our services offered at the church,” she told the CSAF. “We have people that come in and say they would like prayers and they’re not part of a Catholic community, but they realize the value of prayer and how it brings us all together.” In helping American Indians from several tribes maintain their cultural values and symbols within the Catholic faith, one of the ministry’s central offerings is the Miigeweyon Hearse, or “Going Home Project,” which transports a deceased person’s body to his or her home reservation for burial.
ST. PAUL SEMINARY Goal: $650,000 The CSA funds more than 30 seminarians annually at a cost of $30,000 each, or $120,000 over four years — the men’s final years in the classroom before their priestly ordination. This year, 11 men are expected to be ordained priests for the archdiocese. Among them is Deacon Brandon Theisen, whose home parish is Epiphany in Coon Rapids. He told the CSAF that it takes “many years of preparation” to learn to be “a spiritual father to thousands of people” and help them develop a relationship with Christ. And not all of that is academic. “In seminary we have different formators, [including] spiritual directors,” he told the CSAF. Speaking of the human formation aspect of seminary life, he added: “So, if it be in little ways with manners, etiquette, which fork to use at the dinner table ... [or] how to carry on a normal conversation, they just try to help polish us so we can be bridges to people, not obstacles.” www.stthomas.edu/spssod
EVANGELIZATION AND CATECHESIS Goal: $150,000 Last September, 350 men and women gathered in Burnsville for a conference on grandparenting. It was the first of its kind in the archdiocese, and it launched the Catholic Grandparent Ministry, an initiative of the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization and Catechesis. Established in 2014, the office also oversees Catholic Watchmen and Rediscover, and it is a partner with Women in the New Evangelization. It aims to help parishes improve adult faith formation and outreach, and it is targeting efforts to build up family life and parish community. http://rediscover.archspm.org
Bishop Andrew Cozzens presents a Champions for Life Award Oct. 13, 2016. The awards are an initiative of the Office of Marriage, Family and Life. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit
MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND LIFE Goal: $385,174 From retreats for engaged couples to faith formation for people with disabilities, and a biomedical ethics commission to Archdiocesan Youth Day, the archdiocese’s Office of Marriage, Family and Life encompasses an extensive list of programs, initiatives and groups that, together, dovetail with nearly every part of family life. St. Peter Claver parishioner Michelle Nabors found support in Faithful Spouses, a group the office hosts monthly for Catholics who are separated or divorced. “Faithful Spouses has been helpful in fellowship, support and prayer,” Nabors told The Catholic Spirit in 2015. “[It’s] a community of people who are asking the same questions that are honestly questions most people in society don’t understand why you’re asking in the first place, much less how to answer.” www.archspm.org/offices/marriagefamily-life
ARCHDIOCESAN COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN Goal: $25,585 “I talked to a priest last year and said the women are the backbone of the Church. He said no, they’re the heart of the Church.” Florence Schmidt
Each year, members of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women fill a semi-truck with Christmas gifts from people in the archdiocese for families in Appalachia. They also coordinate a mental health hotline, host leadership and spirituality events, and serve in their parishes, often in behind-the-scenes capacities. Last year, they raised $18,000 for their Mission Plan Madonna Fund, which supports motherchild centers in third world countries. “The strength of ACCW needs to continue because women are reaching out for the support,” Florence Schmidt, ACCW president, told the CSAF. “Our country is very secular and ACCW women want the support of their peers. They want to know that what they’re doing is worthwhile.” www.accwarchspm.org
4A • The Catholic Spirit
February 9, 2017
ST. JOHN VIANNEY COLLEGE SEMINARY Goal: $300,000
Father Tom Margevicius and Deacon Mike Powers sign “I love you” in front of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Minneapolis, which serves the Catholic deaf community. Courtesy CSAF
DEAF MINISTRY
The CSAF funds annual room and board — about $10,000 — for each seminarian from the archdiocese studying at St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas. It’s the largest undergraduate seminary in the United States, drawing men from 20 dioceses. More than 400 of its alumni are priests. Among them is Father Matthew Northenscold, ordained in 2016 for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and who serves as the associate pastor of St. Peter in North St. Paul. “I got close to God,” Father Northenscold told The Catholic Spirit, speaking of his experience studying at SJV and, later, at St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. “I learned how to listen to him in prayer. He revealed his great love during a retreat and holy hour, and I felt a deep desire in myself to help others learn that same love.” www.stthomas.edu/vianney
Goal: $39,733 Beth Seibert, a Catholic who is deaf, said there are many parishes that have an American Sign Language interpreter, but she chooses to attend Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Minneapolis, which has a particular outreach to the deaf community. Even the auditoriumstyle floor plan is conducive to members of the congregation being able to easily see the liturgy, she said. Its pastor, Father Tom Margevicius, signs the Mass. “The priest himself is able to sign, the choir signs, the music is signed, so that’s what makes it so unique — that we can really participate and be involved using our language and our culture,” she told the CSAF. The community is strong enough to compel her to make the drive each week from her home in North St. Paul. People who are not hearing impaired also attend the traditionally Italian parish, and “they respect our language, they respect our culture, and I don’t feel like I’m treated as a second-class citizen,” Seibert said. https://olmcmpls.org
CATHOLIC CHARITIES Goal: $1,100,000 Catholic Charities is “a leader at solving poverty, creating opportunity, and advocating for justice in the community. The organization is working to advance a vision of a community where there is poverty for no one and opportunity for everyone.” Catholic Services Appeal Foundation
ST. PAUL’S OUTREACH Goal: $11,000 “You need other people there to help fight with you.”
Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis helps nearly 30,000 people each year, with a focus on people who are homeless, children, refugees and immigrants, older adults and people with disabilities. Their work includes the new Higher Ground St. Paul, which opened in January to serve men and women who are homeless in St. Paul. www.cctwincities.org
Austin Riordan
St. Paul’s Outreach serves students at colleges and universities across the country, including eight in the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: Bethel University, Inver Hills Community College, Normandale Community College, St. Catherine University, St. Olaf College, St. Paul College, the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas. Through building friendships and forming community, SPO missionaries accompany students as they encounter Christ and deepen their relationship with him. Austin Riordan moved into an SPO “household” of men as a senior at St. Thomas, and later served as an SPO missionary at the university after graduation. “I would have never been talking about Jesus or about the Catholic faith if someone else hadn’t initiated. I wasn’t going to walk through the doors of campus ministry by myself. Somebody needed to walk me in there, in the metaphorical way. When I think about that with my own work, I know that the people who really need campus ministry aren’t the people who are going to walk in there by themselves,” he told The Catholic Spirit. “It’s about building a real friendship, and if we’re living our Christian lifestyle well, the name of Jesus will come up, but in a natural way, and people will wonder why we live this way, and they’ll begin to ask questions.” https://spo.org
HIGH SCHOOLS Goal: $800,000 In 2016, the CSAF awarded tuition scholarships to 320 students. Among them was Gabriella Grady, a sophomore at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. “Just having that constant presence of God and always having him right in our classrooms and at home, ... it makes us feel like we are doing the right thing, and that makes us think about what we’re doing and the good deeds that should be done,” she told the CSAF. Her religion classes and the school’s faith-filled environment builds on and deepens the Catholic faith she has been taught at home, she said. Receiving a scholarship supported by Catholics across the archdiocese “makes me feel really special and that people really care about how kids are doing in life,” Grady added. “I think students should all have the fair chance of coming here, because it is a great school and it does enforce that fact that God is always present.” www.archspm.org/departments/schools
Girls dance at Latino Family Day Aug. 13, 2016. Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit
LATINO MINISTRY Goal: $350,000 Of the estimated 185,000 Latinos living in archdiocese, about 63 percent are Catholic. Latino ministry serves this growing population with Spanishlanguage outreach, retreats, faith formation and leadership programs for youth and adults, and 23 parishes with a Latino ministry arm. The Office of Latino Ministry also coordinates the annual Latino Family Day, oversees parish teams that help civilly married Latino couples sacramentalize their unions, and hosts Catholic Men’s Night and Catholic Women’s Night. “If we support the family from the beginning with the family catechism and supporting them when they have crises, then that family is much more stable to keep on with the faith and pass on the faith,” Estela Villagran Manancero, Latino Ministry director, told the CSAF. www.archspm.org/departments/oficina-ministeriolatino
HOSPITAL CHAPLAINS Goal: $600,000 The CSAF funds the salaries of nine Catholic hospital chaplains who serve 13 area hospitals: Abbot Northwestern, Children’s-St. Paul, Fairview Southdale, Hennepin County Medical Center, Mercy, Methodist, North Memorial Medical Center, Regions, St. John’sMaplewood, United, Unity, University of Minnesota and University of Minnesota-Fairview. According to the CSAF, more than 100,000 Catholics “move through” these hospitals each year. Chaplains offer sacraments including the anointing of the sick, reconciliation and holy Communion, as well as a ministry of presence. Their “congregation” is constantly changing; chaplains say a person’s average hospital stay is approximately two days, which means their connection with Catholics might be short but significant.
PARISHES Goal: $1,800,000 The largest single area the CSAF supports is parishes through rebates determined by donations to the appeal. Their goal is either 5 or 6 percent of their offertory income, depending on whether or not they are affiliated with a school. Parishes that reach 100 percent of their goal receive a 25 percent rebate, and parishes that reach between 90 to 99.99 percent of their goal receive 10 percent back. Last year, 124 of the 187 parishes in the archdiocese hit their donation goal.