By Renée St. Martin Wizeman

It has been said that you cannot know where you’re bound if you don’t know where you’ve been. Given the Diocese of Helena’s recent plethora of deceptively similar acronyms, new fundraising initiatives, changed names and shifted time frames, a short course on the history of the Annual Catholic Appeal, née Diocesan Offertory Program, may help illuminate the path ahead.

The 1970s ushered in shaggy hair, bell bottoms, disco, economic recession in Western countries and, in the Diocese of Helena, the call for a reinvigorated annual appeal. The Diocesan Offertory Program, or DOP, began in 1965. It was introduced as a way to provide additional diocesan services while decreasing reliance on parish assessments, Chancellor Father John Robertson said. For the first decade, the DOP was directed by the chancery’s business manager, in part because at that time the chancery had fewer offices and staff, said Father Robertson.

As noted in Cornelia Flaherty’s diocesan history “Go With Haste into the Mountains,” the initial response to the DOP was strong, but eventually leveled off. In 1971, San Francisco-based Community Counseling Service contracted with the diocese to revitalize the DOP. “They boosted the amount of the appeal and showed us how to do campaigns differently,” said Pete McNamee, diocesan finance officer. “We reached a point where we thought it had plateaued, so we used what they’d taught us.”

Patricia Peterson, who managed the DOP from 1974-2001, said she took the good points that Community Counseling Service offered during consultations, and tailored the suggestions to work within Montana culture.

Father Tom Haffey, pastor of St. Ann Parish in Butte and a diocesan priest for 40 years, also remembers the California consultants. “I was on the priest senate when we brought in CCS; we all sniveled, griped, and whined at the bishop (Raymond Hunthausen) for bringing in this outside group, but it has actually turned out to be a pretty successful program over the years,” he said.

As Flaherty’s book recounts, the Planned Giving Office, which included Deferred Giving and the DOP, was created in 1976. A foundation began in 1978. In 1983, the Development Office was created to supervise planned giving, DOP and parish stewardship.

From the mid 1960s through the ’90s, other dioceses also were developing and refining their approach to effective stewardship. The National Council for Diocesan Support Programs, today better known as the International Catholic Stewardship Council, was founded in 1962 by Cardinal Joseph Ritter of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The council was directed by Father Kaletta, who saw the need for “…a Catholic theology and a philosophy of resource development which would lead to a sharing of information about financial problems in the Church,” as explained on the ICSG Web site www.catholicstewardship.org. The ICSC hosts twice-yearly institutes that representatives from the chancery and individual parishes frequently attend.

The Diocese of Helena’s DOP Committee was formed in 1976 to assist in setting parish goals, determining allocations to the various programs and ministries funded with DOP money and developing campaign materials. Peterson said that Bishop Elden Curtiss was the first Helena bishop to have such a committee.

In late 2001, the Diocese of Helena’s DOP Committee was renamed the Stewardship Advisory Committee, as the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Bishops’ pastoral letter “Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response” came early in 2002. Father Robertson explained that the name change marked the importance of the pastoral letter, and featured the DOP as part of the Catholic vision that each person is called to be a steward of God’s creation. “The Stewardship Advisory Committee played a major role in communicating the theology of stewardship through various stewardship efforts,” McNamee said. Notable efforts included parish stewardship materials and the Son Light gala event and fundraiser.

In 2007, the Stewardship Committee was disbanded due to staff and organizational changes among the chancery’s stewardship, finance and development offices.

Early in 2009, the Diocesan Offertory Program was rescheduled for a fall time frame, after several decades of the familiar spring date. The Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors expressed concerns about launching another appeal – the DOP – on the heels of the final block of the from Age to Age capital campaign, as the uncertainty of the world financial downturn grew. Bishop George Leo Thomas accepted the councils’ recommendation to move the annual appeal to the fall of 2009. A subsequent recommendation was made and accepted to rename the annual appeal, from the Diocesan Offertory Program to the Annual Catholic Appeal, or ACA.

McNamee said that most dioceses continue to have both a diocesan assessment and an annual appeal; if there were no annual appeal, the diocesan assessment would have to be triple its current amount of 9.5 percent.

“People like to give to the bishop for the diocesan and world Church’s needs, and to the local pastor for the local needs,” McNamee said. Both Peterson and McNamee said there was a strong association between parishioners’ response rates and priests’ and pastors’ vowed support for the annual appeal.

“I think people rally around the (annual appeal), especially when we start to make our goals,” Father Haffey said. He said he holds a moderate hope that the ACA will be successful, while also acknowledging this transition year – new time, new name – could reflect a temporary downturn.

And Peterson provided the veteran’s sage view: “So much of the response to the DOP came because of the programs that would be supported. When I was there, anything to do with kids and supporting our aging priests drew interest. We also made a major push to get some funding for birthmothers, which was a big draw because a lot of people understood the problems these young ladies were facing. The emphasis on programs was what encouraged people to give,” she said.

“Given the people of the Diocese of Helena’s long tradition of selfless giving – of living, breathing stewardship – another 40 years of giving and growing in Christ’s light seems entirely plausible,” said current Stewardship Services and ACA Director Glenda Seipp.

For more information about the programs and ministries now funded by the Annual Catholic Appeal, visit www.diocesehelena.org/aca. The ACA Parish Progress Report is on page 18.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 25, No. 12, December 18, 2009.