2016 Catholic Services Appeal

January 21, 2016 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

2016

An overview of this year’s appeal • 2A

CATHOLIC SERVICES APPEAL

CAMPUS MINISTRY 2016 goals and reasons to give • 3A

CATHOLIC CHARITIES Photos by Dave Hrbacek

In their own words: Why the CSA matters • 4A

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

2A • The Catholic Spirit

L

eadership skills, a strong community and a deeper love of God are the fruits of Dafne Carmona-Rios’ involvement in Pastoral Juvenil, the youth group for Latino teens in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. There, the youth “learn to trust him [God], to be capable of being blown away by his greatness and humility,” said Carmona-Rios, a parishioner of Holy Rosary in Minneapolis who has received leadership training through the archdiocese’s Latino Ministry.

Last year, Pastoral Juvenil served more than 1,000 youth, ages 13-17, through eight programs in the archdiocese’s 22 parishes that celebrate Mass in Spanish. The initiative is supported by the archdiocese’s Office of Latino Ministry, one of 17 ministries in the archdiocese funded by the annual Catholic Services Appeal.

Like last year, the 2016 appeal goal is $9.3 million, with plans to distribute amounts ranging from $11,000 to St. Paul’s Outreach to $1,375,000 to Catholic elementary schools. Parishes that meet or nearly meet their appeal goals receive a percentage of the funds they raise, and the appeal estimates it will return $1.8 million to parishes in 2016.

The Catholic Services Appeal Foundation, a Plymouth-based organization that separated from the archdiocese in 2013 and is led by a board of directors, hopes using more social media; a new blog at its website, www.csafspm.org; and stronger yearlong communication about the funds’ impact in the community will attract more people’s giving. The appeal launches in parishes across the archdiocese Jan. 23-24 and Jan. 30-31.

A focus on serving Last year, the CSA launched with the tagline “Serve, Support, Strengthen.” The 2016 appeal’s theme is “Serve,” marking the first of a three-year campaign that will focus on each theme.

“In this Year of Mercy, it’s important to serve all of the different people who are in need,” said Jennifer Beaudry, the CSAF’s executive director. “With everything that’s going on the archdiocese, it’s still important to serve these people who need our help. They can’t just be dropped, and we can’t say we’re not going to give . . . because we’re upset with the archdiocese. . . . These people don’t get funding any other way.”

While some CSA recipients — such as Catholic Charities, St. Paul’s Outreach and the seminaries — have their own fundraising arms, others rely heavily on what they receive from the CSA to fund their basic programs.

People may not otherwise think of the archdiocese’s American Indian ministry, deaf ministry or Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women when exploring where to give, Beaudry said.

Although the goal is the same as last year, its distribution plan varies slightly. Because the amount given to seminaries is based on the number of seminarians from the archdiocese — $30,000 each for men enrolled at St. Paul Seminary and $10,000 each for men at St. John Vianney College Seminary — the CSAF expects to give less to the seminaries this year, based on enrollment projections. That allowed it to boost the amount it plans to give to support new prison ministry initiatives.

The CSAF also increased funding for its expenses by $150,000 to $950,000 to reflect two new staff members, new marketing plans and the fact that it went over budget in 2015 due to unforeseen computer issues. [See a graphic of the 17 ministries and their 2016 funding goals on page 3A.]

CATHOLIC SERVICES APPEAL

January 21, 2016

2016 CSA

shoots for same dollar goal as last year, but has bigger aims overall

By Maria Wiering • The Catholic Spirit

Affecting every Catholic The CSA-supported ministries are so varied that Beaudry said she would be amazed if she met a Catholic who sincerely thought he or she hadn’t been affected by at least one of them.

While some of the ministries, such as American Indian and deaf ministries, focus on particular groups, many of the ministries affect all corners of the archdiocese, CSAF leaders said, pointing to Catholic school scholarships; the Office for Marriage, Family and Life’s marriage preparation retreats; and the seminaries’ priest formation.

The CSA funds also make it possible for the Church’s charitable arms — such as Catholic Charities — to perform acts of mercy in the broader community. The $1.1 million it receives from the CSA comprised about 1.7 percent of Catholic Charities’ $52 million operating budget in 2015, but the Twin Cities organization greatly depends on it, said Tim Marx, its chief executive officer.

It’s “really important to have the broad support of the community,” he said. “Those who contribute to us through the Catholic Services Appeal help those who are homeless on the streets, help abused children . . . [and] those who need early childhood education, help in our prenatal programs, help resettle refugees, as well as keep older adults in their homes. They are part of all the work that we do, including the advocacy work we do at the Legislature.”

Florence Schmidt, ACCW president, also ticked off a litany of programs the CSA helps the organization execute, from bringing Christmas gifts to families in need in Appalachia to an Advent retreat the organization hosts. And, because so many parishes have CCW groups, their work reaches far across the archdiocese.

“The funds make the difference in being able to help women in our 12-county archdiocese and beyond,” she said. “I consider our program important. As I often say, our women are the backbone of the archdiocese.”

St. Paul’s Outreach, a campus ministry based in West St. Paul, receives the smallest slice of CSA funds, but they’re no less important to the organization.

“In the past year, support from the Catholic Services Appeal helped enable 200 St. Paul’s Outreach missionaries to reach more than 14,000 college students across the country with the saving message of the Gospel,” said David Fischer, SPO’s vice president for advancement.

The CSA asks each parish to raise a certain amount, and parishes that collect 100 percent of their goals receive 25 percent back to use for their own ministries. The combined parishes’ goals amount to $7.7 million, $1.6 million shy of the overall goal.

2015 fell short, but better than expected Given the challenges the archdiocese faced last year — Reorganization, civil and criminal charges, and the resignations of two bishops — CSAF leadership didn’t expect to make the 2015 appeal’s $9.3 million goal. They estimated pledges would reach $6 million or $7 million, said Greg Pulles, a CSAF board member. Instead, givers rallied at the year-end and pledged $9 million, which meant all ministries received at least 80 percent of the CSA’s goal for them, and some received 100 percent.

For that reason, the CSAF stuck with the $9.3 million goal in 2016.

“The board basically thought, let’s try not to rock the ship in these times; let’s be steady,” Pulles said.

The CSA’s number of givers dropped 7,000 in 2015, and 5,000 in 2014. The drop is, in part, because there are fewer Catholics in the pews, Pulles said.

In November, however, the CSAF participated for the first time in Give to the Max Day, where it drew in about $10,000 — four times the amount it expected.

Some of the CSAF’s challenges are shared with all fundraisers. The numbers of overall donors are decreasing, Beaudry said, but those who are giving are giving more. The CSAF estimates about 25 percent of Catholics registered in parishes contribute to the appeal.

“It is our No. 1 task here to increase the number of givers over time,” Pulles said. “We’d like everyone to give something.”

Expanding the number of parishes represented on the CSAF’s board of directors may help with that, he said. The board includes three pastors and three parish administrators among its 23 members.

“We’re making progress in effectively communicating with the pastors and parishes that we’re here to serve them,” Pulles said. “It’s their appeal. These are shared ministries of the archdiocese that no one parish can support on its own. . . . If everybody just participates a little and acknowledges that shared responsibility to fund these ministries, we can get this job done.”

Part of the CSAF’s challenge is helping Catholics in the archdiocese see “the local Church” as larger than their own parish.

It is also working to increase awareness that it is a separate organization from the archdiocese, and none of the money it raises pays the archdiocese’s attorneys’ fees.

Looking ahead The CSAF has funded the same 16 ministries — plus the parishes, through the funds it returns to them — for years, Beaudry said. At some point it hopes to expand its reach.

The appeal goal of $9.3 million has also held steady for seven years, and CSAF leaders hope to begin raising it in the future.

“In a diocese this size, we should really be in the $15 [million] to $20 million range,” Beaudry said.

“It’s going to take a lot of work and there’s a lot of healing that needs to happen here within the archdiocese, but I really believe we have the potential here to do it.

“I believe the archdiocese is a very generous archdiocese and we have a lot of really good people here,” she added. “I believe we have a really good shot of doing it if we can get through this turmoil going on right now, and grow . . . and keep showing people what the CSA does.”

CATHOLIC SERVICES APPEAL

January 21, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 3A

2016 APPEAL GOALS Parishes

$300,000

$1.8 million

Latino Ministry

Archdiocesan Council Catholic Women

Hospital Chaplains $600,000

$25,585

Campus Ministry Newman Center $264,000

Saint Paul Seminary

Deaf Ministry

$350,000

$42,427

$950,000

Campus Ministry St. Paul’s Outreach

$1,375,000

Prison Chaplains

Expenses

$800,000

Catholic Elementary Schools

$39,733

$650,000

Catholic High Schools

St. John Vianney

$11,000

Marriage, Family & Life $438,092

Catholic Charities $1.1 million

Venezuelan Mission Evangelization Indian Ministry $204,163

$150,000

$200,000

Total for ministries • $8.35 million

A good reason not to give? CSAF invites you to reconsider For The Catholic Spirit Each year, the Catholic Services Appeal Foundation raises millions of dollars to fund ministries in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. But in the fundraising process, it hears from Catholics who choose not to give to the appeal. Some of the common reasons, its board members find, are based on misinformation. The Catholic Spirit asked the CSAF to identify and respond to the six most common reasons people do not give to the appeal.

Reason No. 1: I am going to give my money directly to the charities, like Catholic Charities.

Response: If everyone gave their money

to their favorite charity, there are a lot of local ministries that wouldn’t get much in the way of donations. First, most people think first of the popular charities, like Catholic Charities. They maybe haven’t heard of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, the prison ministry or the American Indian ministry. Second, there isn’t any way to give to many of these ministries except collectively. For example, CSAF funds 325 scholarships to Catholic high schools.

Reason No. 2: I am mad at the

archbishop and the leadership. The only thing they understand is money.

Response: Leadership has changed and “gets it.” Withholding money hurts those who need our help the most.

Reason No. 3: I’m only going to give to my parish. It needs the money.

Response: We are called as Catholics to

serve our brothers and sisters throughout our larger community and the world.

There are many valuable ministries that are larger than any one single parish, and they benefit all of us — hospital chaplains, prison ministry, American Indian ministry, evangelization initiatives, tuition assistance for Catholic school students, support for our seminarians in formation and assistance for those most in need among us. Many of these ministries do not receive additional funding, and if CSAF support declines, they need to cut back their services.

Reason No. 4: I am not going to give any money if it is going to lawyers.

Response: All of your donations are

restricted gifts to the designated ministries, as they always have been. All the money raised by CSAF goes into a single account, and all of it is paid out every year to the designated ministries.

The money goes where you intended it to go.

Reason No. 5: I don’t think the CSAF is really separate from the archdiocese.

Response: The Catholic Services Appeal

Foundation is a separate Minnesota nonprofit corporation, with its own employees, offices, directors, bank account, accountants and contracts. It is audited by an independent auditing firm. Its audit is published on its website, www.csafspm.org.

Reason No. 6: I don’t know where my money goes.

Response: When a gift is made to the

Catholic Services Appeal Foundation it is used to support the 17 designated ministries of the archdiocese, including the parishes that make their goal, as well as the appeal’s expenses. The 17 designated ministries are: American Indian ministry; Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women; Campus Ministry – Newman Center; Campus Ministry – Saint Paul’s Outreach; Catholic Charities; deaf ministry; Catholic elementary schools; Catholic high schools; the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis; archdiocesan hospital chaplains; Latino ministry; the Office of Marriage, Family and Life; archdiocesan parishes; prison chaplain ministry; St. John Vianney College Seminary; St. Paul Seminary; and the archdiocese’s Venezuelan mission.

4A • The Catholic Spirit

“The funds we receive from CSAF enable us to respond to people’s spiritual as well as physical needs. Our mission parish is located in a very poor area of Venezuela afflicted with high unemployment; chronic malnutrition, especially amongst the elderly and children; and pervasive delinquency and violence. Some people turn to drugs and alcohol to escape the poverty. Others turn to the Church for hope and help, spiritual and physical.”

Father Greg Schaffer, pastor of the archdiocese’s Venezuelan mission parish, Jesucristo Resucitado, since 1997

“A

s a seminarian at St. John Vianney College Seminary, I benefit greatly from the CSAF. The assistance that I receive to cover room and board is an incredible blessing. This gives me freedom to focus less on financial concerns and more on my education and vocation.”

Michael Bielejeski, senior at St. John Vianney College Seminary

Tuition assistance “allows us to send our children to the private [Catholic] school versus the public school. They enjoy the smaller classroom settings . . . and keeping the faith in pretty much every class that they attend.”

Richard Akerlund, parent of a kindergartner and second-grader attending Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Montgomery who receive tuition assistance through the CSAF

“I feel proud to be part of youth ministry where I have strengthened my leadership skills.

Furthermore, I dare say that today I am able to know who I am — and where to direct my dreams as a teenager — without leaving aside my values ​​at the core of my humanity.”

Dafne Carmona-Rios, parishioner of Holy Rosary in Minneapolis and participant in a Latino youth group supported by the Office of Latino Ministry (Quote translated from Spanish.)

“The funds are used to cover our expenses used in promoting our various programs such as the Madonna Plan, Naomi-Ruth Prayer Partnership, Appalachia Program and much more. We also use funds to put on our Advent Reflection morning the first Saturday of Advent and our annual ACCW convention in [the] spring. Funds can also help to fund education opportunities for our members, such as our ‘On the Road’ program to help church CCW councils.”

Florence Schmidt, president of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women

“Support from the CSAF, which represents approximately half of the real cost of forming our future priests, is essential during the formation process. Without this, there would be an extra burden on the diocese and the seminary. We are grateful.”

Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, rector of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity

CATHOLIC SERVICES APPEAL

IN THEIR OWN WORDS “Corrections ministry has greatly been enhanced by the CSAF. We are able to expand existing programs, including REC (Residents Encounter Christ), retreats at Lino Lakes and Stillwater, and we’ll also be adding Rush City. It has also enabled us to create new programs such as EMBRACE, in which a parish embraces an inmate and assists him or her upon release with employment, housing, transportation and other needs.”

Deacon Tim Zinda, coordinator of archdiocesan correctional ministries

“Catholic patients and their loved ones highly appreciate the ongoing ministry of the priestchaplains during their stay in the hospitals. They experience Christ’s love and mercy, and the spiritual support of the whole Church.”

Father Jules Omalanga, priest-chaplain at Fairview/ University of Minnesota

“It was rough in the beginning, but through perseverance it all came together. I’m in a better situation and getting better, thanks to going through Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Center.”

Melvin Browning, resident of Catholic Charities’ St. Paul Residence working toward a college degree, who credits the Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul for helping him escape homelessness

“Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is the only parish in Minnesota specifically equipped to minister to deaf and hard-of-hearing Catholics. All prayers, songs, Scriptures and even the priest’s and deacon’s homilies are delivered simultaneously in two languages, English and American Sign Language, and there are numerous other spiritual and social opportunities for the deaf every month. A third of our annual budget comes from CSA donations, without which we would not be able to serve our deaf brothers and sisters.”

Father Tom Margevicius, pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Deaf Community in Minneapolis

“T

he men and women who can contribute to the Catholic Services Appeal are the foundation of the work that we do. Without them, we could do nothing. They’re the ones who reach out to serve the woman in a crisis pregnancy, or the family that’s stuggling in their marriage, or making sure that the youth have an experience and encounter of Christ.”

Jean Stolpestad, director of the archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life

January 21, 2016 “That support, especially more recently, has been really uplifting for us to help get the word out and help people know that big things are happening at the U and at St. Lawrence. It makes all the difference, all of their support, because we really can’t do any of the events without their funding.”

Laura Knippling, senior at the University of Minnesota and member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center

“Every dollar [from the CSA] allows us to impact the lives of college students in a way we would not otherwise be able to, through hosting events on campus, men’s and women’s nights at our houses off campus, as well as helping fund retreats and trips for students who would not otherwise be able to [go].”

Nick Redd, St. Paul’s Outreach men’s mission director at the University of St. Thomas

“J

esus has called us to go into the world and make disciples. The funds that we receive are used to rally and equip the faithful to go out into the world and communicate the good news. Evangelization is at the heart of the Church’s mission, and every dollar spent is translated into a spiritual currency that can impact lives in an eternal way.”

Jeff Cavins, director of the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis

“Burial services can mean traveling to Indian reservations located in North Dakota, South Dakota [and] Wisconsin, but primarily to one of the 11 Indian reservations that exist in Minnesota. . . . It can mean remaining on the reservation to assist in wake services, or overnight stays. I often will drive the hearse to a reservation that can be up near Canada.”

Richard Wright, Going Home Project volunteer for the archdiocese’s American Indian ministry, which arranges for American Indians who die in the Twin Cities to be buried at their home reservation or ancestral burial place

“Clearly middle class families are being squeezed where you’re seeing both mom and dad working full time — and some cases one parent is working a second job — so without this tuition assistance . . . these students just wouldn’t be able to come here.”

Brother Pat Conway, vice president for advancement at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, where 76 students are currently supported by CSA-funded tuition assistance

“The Catholic Services Appeal helps parishes make sure that no one is missed when we reach out with the compassion and mercy of Christ. Hospital chaplains extend Jesus’ healing touch to those who are often far away from home and from their pastors.

I’ve been privileged to work with parishes partnered with the American Indian ministry, but the ministry itself exists through CSA funding. Our staff benefits from workshops funded by the CSA, whether we’re looking at new ideas in Catholic education or sharing ideas about how to spread the good news.”

Father Thomas Walker, pastor of St. Michael in Prior Lake