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By Renée St. Martin Wizeman
A couple sits at their dining room table as
their daughter half-listens to her parents’ conversation.
The topic: Church and money. On a
Sunday morning this October, Helen Beausoleil
spoke to St. Mary Catholic Community parishioners,
in Helena, about this decades-old memory
of her parents discussing the first Diocesan
Offertory Program, or DOP. The DOP was the
first diocese-wide annual appeal, which began
in 1965, and was renamed the Annual Catholic
Appeal, or ACA, in 2009.
Over 40 years later, these conversations still
occur in many homes, from Bigfork to West
Yellowstone. And Beausoleil—who has served
in youth ministry and is currently a social worker
for Catholic Social Services of
Montana—has seen firsthand the annual
appeal’s impact on the day-to-day operations of
the Church, in the parishes, the diocese and
beyond.
But that same annual appeal didn’t meet the
$1.7 million goal in 2009, and is trending
toward a similar outcome for 2010. The deficit
leaves diocesan staff, priest leaders, and many
program and ministry directors in an anxious
state. The annual appeal provides one-third of
the funding for the programs and ministries
throughout the diocese and touches nearly every
aspect of the shared faith life of Catholics in
western Montana.
“If we don’t meet the goal, we cannot sustain
our essential services,” said Pete
McNamee, chief financial officer for the
Diocese of Helena. Diocesan staff has discussed
how to increase participation in the annual
appeal and where to cut spending. Without an
additional $602,000 in received gifts, there are
throughout the diocese and parishes,
increase administrative fees for programs
such as Legendary Lodge summer camps
and the CYC Convention and Holy Spirit
Conference, or attempt to borrow money.
If ACA funds do not reach the stated goal,
then all 65 programs and ministries funded
by the ACA will see a reduction in the
ACA money they receive. Programs range
from clergy retirement and seminarian formation
to youth and young adult ministry
and aid to the needy.
For example, ACA 2010 materials note
that $65,000, or about 3.8 percent of the
$1.7 million goal, has been apportioned to
clergy retirement, which is the diocesan
priests’ pension plan. If the ACA is under
goal, then all of the funding to individual
areas is adjusted according to actual funds
received. If ACA 2010 finishes at $1.2 million,
clergy retirement will receive
$45,825 rather than the $65,000 budgeted
and needed to provide a dignified retirement,
said McNamee. And there isn’t a
readily available alternative source to
make up the difference. As such, senior-status
priests are left with very limited
increases to their retirement pay. The average
retirement check for a senior-status
priest is $1,700 a month. In 2009, the
monthly payment was increased by $50 a
month, and in 2010 the increase was $35 a
month. Senior-status priests receive minimal
additional money for continuing to
serve as pastors, or for service on committees
or as substitute priests.
“For ACA 2009, we were 30 percent
under goal. While we are tracking seven
percentage points higher than where we
were last year at this time, at the current
rate, we will not meet goal for ACA 2010,”
said Glenda Seipp, Stewardship Services
director. The annual appeal goal has been
at $1.7 million since 2008. It was at $1.69
million in 2007. The goal was met in both
2007 and 2008. Currently, the appeal is at
65 percent of goal pledged, and 42 percent
of goal paid. In years when the goal has
been met, pledges would be at about 80
percent of goal pledged at this point in the
campaign.
Staff and consultative bodies including
the Presbyteral Council/College of
Consultors and Diocesan Finance Council
have offered anecdotal explanations for
the appeal’s shortfall. While the national
Great Recession and confusion over a
name and timeframe change are cited as
possible explanations, questions and concerns
remain. What happened to the 1,500
donors who contributed to DOP 2007 and
have not contributed to any diocesan campaigns
since? Will they and new donors
support the annual appeal, and, in the
interim, how can the diocese offset a shortage
of over $500,000?
(Click here to view the ACA progress report for 2010 to date).
What's in a name?
In January 2009, during the Presbyteral
Council/College of Consultors meeting,
several diocesan priests expressed concerns
about the timing of the annual appeal
following closely on the from Age to Age
capital campaign. In response, Bishop
George Leo Thomas agreed to postpone
the annual campaign until the fall of 2009.
Up to this point, the annual campaign was
conducted in the spring, with the name
Diocesan Offertory Program, or DOP.
Three months later, the Presbyteral
Council/College of Consultors approved a
name change, from Diocesan Offertory
Program to Annual Catholic Appeal, or
ACA. In discussions leading up to the
name change, priests and pastors indicated
that the name Annual Catholic Appeal better
reflected this appeal that benefits individuals,
parishes and diocesan, national
and worldwide Church needs.
Moving the annual appeal from the
spring to the fall left the diocese cashstrapped
for about six months. The $1.7
million goal for DOP 2008 was rolled into
the overall $12.6 million capital campaign
goal. While donors began contributing to
the capital campaign in May 2008, the
bulk of those funds were endowed, which
was the fundamental objective of the capital
campaign. Creating endowments to
provide sustainable revenue was a key recommendation
of the 2007 pastoral plan
Come to the Light. Following a feasibility
study in 2007, the diocesan capital campaign
from Age to Age, or fATA, was
launched. The five-year fATA campaign is
currently at $11 million pledged, and the
DOP 2008 funds were paid first from campaign
monies, thereby meeting the DOP’s
$1.7 million goal.
Over time, anecdotal accounts of donor
confusion between campaign names fATA,
ACA and DOP-were relayed to
diocesan staff.
“We offered numerous materials
explaining the reasons for the name and
time-frame change for the annual appeal,”
said Seipp. Bulletin inserts and articles in
The Montana Catholic and on the diocesan
website addressed the changes.
“Even in this second year, we continue
to receive a slow trickle of phone calls or
correspondence from donors who believe
they are contributing to the annual appeal,
but have actually given to the capital campaign,”
said Seipp.
What goes when the money doesn't flow
What did not change was the need for
and reliance upon annual appeal funds.
Every ministry and program funded by
the Annual Catholic Appeal will see
decreases relative to the appeal’s level of
success. And those decreases will be felt
by everyone, regardless of whether
they’ve contributed to the annual appeal or
not.
So, a high school student like Taylor
S., a parishioner at SS Cyril and
Methodius Parish in
East Helena, might not have the kind of
life-changing experience he did at
Legendary Lodge. During the ACA
Commitment Weekend in October, South
shared his story with his parish. “Only a
few years ago I was very lost spiritually.
Following a dark path, my life was full of
struggles. The summer of my freshman
year came along, and I was finally able to
discuss my Lord and Savior. I can credit
this to Legendary Lodge. Thanks to the
amazing spiritual presence of the lodge
and many deep conversations with Father
Mark (Lenneman), I was finally able to
turn my life around.”
The impact of fewer ACA donors, and
therefore fewer dollars, could reduce the
availability of programs such as
Legendary Lodge, the diocesan Catholic
summer camp for young people. If ACA
2010 finishes under goal, then the funds to
Legendary Lodge will be reduce proportionally.
Rather than receiving the budgeted
$60,000, if the ACA comes in at $1.2
million, then Legendary Lodge would
receive only $42,000. “That missing 30
percent funding would severely curtail the
number of campers we could serve,” said
McNamee.
Some pastors have suggested cutting
chancery staff as a way to offset the downturn
in annual appeal support. Bishop
Thomas is unwilling to take this approach.
“The various services of the chancery
provide invaluable infrastructure to the
workings and Holy Order of our diocesan
Church,” said Bishop Thomas in a recent
interview. “Frankly, the staff is already
skeletal, and making cuts will most assuredly
affect the services we can provide.”
He likened the infrastructure aspect of
the chancery to the infrastructure measures
in place for the Cathedral of St. Helena
building– like electric and seismic retrofitting.
These aren’t particularly glitzy or
high-profile functions, but they are very
necessary. Having a business office, a
human resources office, a pastoral planning
office, a stewardship office, a communications
office, a tribunal office, information
services, data base management
and archives is fundamental to the functioning
of the “high-profile” and event-based
chancery offices, like religious education,
youth and young adult ministry, the
Guatemala Mission, family life, and pastoral
services. Chancery infrastructure also
is essential for parishes to meet parishioners’
needs and in support of interdiocesan
offices, such as Catholic Social
Services of Montana and the Montana
Catholic Conference.
(Click here for a comparison chart explaining the differences between ACA and fATA).
Let's talk about our future
Over the past five years, there have been
name changes, times changes, acronyms
galore and some resulting confusion. And
these changes signify growth, beginning
with the development of the pastoral plan
and the objectives it identified. Over the past
three years, the services offered by the
chancery have multiplied, with the most visible
growth in the areas of religious education,
including youth and young adult ministry,
as well as family life, pastoral planning
and communications. This growth has come
with a minimal expansion of staff, while
also maintaining and improving upon the
existing services the chancery already provided
to individuals, parishes and other
Catholic organizations in the state and
beyond.
There are no standalone offices in the
chancery, just as without the parishes there
is no diocese and without the diocese parishes
would be severely limited.
Regardless of the changes and growth,
the needs of the Church remain constant.
And Catholics’ need to fulfill their baptismal
call is also constant. Part of that fulfillment
requires financial giving, and giving freely,
without questioning “What will I get in
return for my gift?” A better question would
be “Who do I help with my gift?”
Christian stewardship is founded on the
concept of gifts of time, talent and treasure.
All are equally valuable and requested
of each and every Catholic. Not giving of
one’s treasure is not an option, especially
as global economic difficulties increase
the need for services like those provided
by Catholic Social Services of Montana,
through their aid to birthmothers, or other
aid to the needy initiatives funded through
the ACA. The United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops stewardship guidelines
suggest that Catholics give 5 percent to the
local parish church, 1 percent to the diocese
and the remaining 4 percent to other
charities.
The understanding of the call for each
person to assist in meeting Church needs
by meeting their ACA goal has been
embraced in parishes across the diocese.
While the overall parish participation
average for the annual appeal is at 64 percent,
12 of 60 parish communities are at
100 percent or more of their ACA 2010
goal pledged. They are Valley of Flowers,
Belgrade; Little Flower, Browning; St.
Thomas, Sunburst; St. Francis, Valier; St.
Theodore, Avon; SS. Cyril & Methodius,
East Helena; St. Thomas, Helmville; St.
Jude, Lincoln; St. Richard, Columbia
Falls; St. James, Plains; Living Water,
Seeley Lakes; and St. Ann, Bonner.
When Helen Beausoleil was a child,
she heard her parents’ conversation, and
saw them respond to the call to give. Not
every person will see the instances of
grace funded by the ACA, as Beausoleil
does in her position at Catholic Social
Services. But over the course of a year,
thousands of those moments happen, in
emergency food pantries, seminaries, the
legislature, a junior high rally or Cursillo
weekend. And those instances occur
because Catholics make them happen,
whether they're on the frontline delivering
the service, or providing the infrastructure
or funding.
“Even a modest gift will help.
Sacrificial giving will keep both the diocese
and parish ministries strong and
viable at a time when all of us are under
financial pressure,” said Bishop Thomas.
To contribute to the Annual Catholic
Appeal, please visit the diocesan website
at www.diocesehelena.org and click on the
Annual Catholic Appeal logo. You may
contribute online or by mail. For more
information, contact Glenda Seipp at 406-
442-5820 or toll free at 1-800-584-8914 in
Montana. E-mail may be sent to
gseipp@diocesehelena.org.
Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 12, December 17, 2010.
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