ARTICLES

Increased offertory campaign to begin

By Steve Neill
Of The Catholic Virginian

”Investing in the Future: Our Youth” will be the theme of a new diocesan-wide stewardship program designed to increase the regular Sunday offertory collection of the diocese’s 153 parishes.

The campaign, to be operated by Steward Consulting, based in Great Falls, Va., a division of the Moran Company, will open in January and conclude at the end of 2008. The active phase of the campaign at each parish will last five weeks.

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo says he felt he needed to initiate the campaign to help make Catholic schools more affordable for families who want to educate their children at these schools.

He told The Catholic Virginian that during his parish visitations people told him their main concern is that their parish have a good religious education program for their children. The parish visitations feature a dialogue which occurs between the bishop and laity based on the diocesan document “We’ve Come This Far by Faith.”

The bishop asked Meitler Consultants, Inc., a national organization based in Wisconsin, to make an evaluation of the Catholic schools of the diocese and diocesan Office of Catholic Schools. The study found that Richmond diocesan schools were doing a good job and students were performing well in standardized tests. The schools received accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools became the first such diocesan office to receive this accreditation from SACS.

Bishop DiLorenzo says he views the increased offertory plan as an investment in the future. (For a more complete article on Bishop DiLorenzo’s reasons for outreach to youth and young adults, read “...and the bishop says”.)

According to diocesan figures, there are 50,000 Catholic youths between the ages of five and 18 in the Diocese of Richmond. Of that number, almost half — approximately 24,000 — are getting no religious education from the parishes. This figure was a cumulative number from the latest parish annual reports which reported information as of June 30, 2006.

Approximately 6,100 Catholic children are among the 8,591 students who attend Catholic schools. The other 2,500 students either attend churches of other denominations or do not go to any church at all.

The largest school in the diocese in terms of student enrollment is St. Gregory the Great in Virginia Beach which has 709 students. The two next largest schools are St. Matthew’s, Virginia Beach, with 564 students, and Roanoke Catholic School with 546 students.

Thomas S. Moran, representing Steward Consulting, said that he expects parishes will see a projected 15 to 20 percent increase in the Sunday offertory. He made a presentation of the stewardship program at the last meeting of the Diocesan Priests’ Council Sept. 26.

Mr. Moran asserted that parishes in the Diocese of Arlington realized an average of 20 percent increase in their offertory after his firm operated a campaign. Some parishes in the Arlington diocese, he said, realized a 35 to 45 percent gain.

Under the new plan, half of that increase will go to the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools for tuition assistance. The other half will remain with each parish with the recommendation that it go toward enhancement of the parish’s religious education program. But parishes are free to spend the money on other concerns.

Annette Parsons, chief school administrator, also spoke at the same Priests’ Council meeting Sept. 26. She said that diocesan schools have strong academic programs which is shown by students’ high standardized test scores. The schools are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the leading regional accrediting body.

John Barrett, director of the diocesan Office of Finance, told The Catholic Virginian that individual Catholic schools will not receive more money directly from the increased offertory income, but parents who send their children to the schools will benefit.

“Tuition assistance doesn’t help a school in financial trouble, it helps give direct aid to the parents to make the schools affordable,” he said. “It does not increase funds for the school’s operating budget.”

Catholic schools in the diocese are facing difficult challenges, Mrs. Parsons acknowledged.

Tuition has steadily increased while enrollment in the schools is decreasing. Current enrollment for the 2007-2008 school year is 8,624. This represents a steady decline from the 2002–2003 enrollment of 9,656.

Tuition rates are increasing faster than family income. Elementary school tuition has increased an average of 31.7 percent and high school tuition has increased an average of 35 percent in the five years from 2001 to 2006. The median family income has gone up 14.14 percent during that same time period.

“Many of us remember a time when Catholic education was affordable and accessible to all families,” Mrs. Parsons said.

“Today this education is increasingly available only to those who can afford it. It is increasingly harder for even upper middle class families to send all their children to Catholic schools,” she added, pointing out that a family with two children in Catholic elementary school and a child in a Catholic high school might have to pay $16,000 a year in tuition.

Under the new plan, parishes which have grade schools will no longer pay an additional assessment to a regional grade school in their local area. But those parishes who pay an assessment to a regional high school will continue with that obligation.

Half of the parish’s increased offertory income — that going to Catholic schools — will not be taxed by the diocese. The other half realized from the increased income — to be retained by the parish for its religious education program or other option — will be taxed at a rate of 9.5 percent. The parishes will have the use of 40.5 percent of that money.

The program used to encourage an increase in the Sunday offertory will minimize the use of volunteers. Mr. Moran, in an executive summary to the Priests’ Council, said the direct mail approach is meant to allow people to look at their own individual financial situations and make a decision in the privacy of their own homes.

“This is what we have found to be successful in the Parish Stewardship Programs directed by the firm in Catholic parishes,” he said.

back to top