ARTICLES

Increased offertory program: Parishes report substantial gains

By Steve Neill
of The Catholic Virginian

When Annette Parsons, Chief School officer of the diocese, asked priests and lay leaders gathered at a recent Central Vicariate meeting how many of them had attended Catholic schools, perhaps two-thirds of them raised their hands.

Mrs. Parsons said this show of hands indicated to her how experience with Catholic schools had helped develop and nurture commitment to ministry in the Catholic Church which provides vocations to the priesthood and lay leadership.

She made this observation April 8 at a meeting with priests, parish administrators and members of parish finance councils of the Central Vicariate. The meeting was held at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.

A similar meeting for the Eastern Vicariate had been held April 2 in Portsmouth and a meeting of the Western Vicariate is to be held Friday, April 25, at Our Lady of Nazareth in Roanoke.

The purpose of the Vicariate meetings is to answer questions about the Increased Offertory campaign initiated by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo to help make Catholic schools affordable for more children of middle income families and to improve the quality of parish religious education programs.

“Catholic schools must be more affordable so they don’t become places where only the rich can send their kids,” Bishop DiLorenzo said at the Richmond meeting.

Under guidelines of the Increased Offertory campaign, parishes would send 50 percent of the increased amount from Sunday and Holy Day collections to the diocese for tuition assistance. The other half of the increase less 9.5 percent Cathedraticum tax will be retained by individual parishes for religious education programs or other needs.

According to Bishop DiLorenzo, himself a product of Catholic schools, there are 8,000 students in Catholic schools in the diocese. Of that number, 6,000 are Catholic, Mrs. Parsons said.

The bishop also expressed concern that perhaps only half of the 50,000 Catholic children of school age in the diocese are receiving any religious education. He feels the diocese must address that issue and bolster parish religious education programs.

Four parishes started the campaign in January and have seen favorable results so far, reported Thomas S. Moran, who heads Steward Consulting Company of Great Falls.

They include Blessed Sacrament, Norfolk, which has seen a 40 percent increase in collections; Epiphany, Richmond, a 25 percent increase; St. Augustine’s, Richmond, a 25 percent increase; and St. Anne’s, Bristol, a 23 percent increase.

Mr. Moran explained that the five-week increased offertory program opens with the pastor giving a homily on stewardship at Sunday Mass the first week. A brochure along with a letter from the pastor will be mailed to all parishioners explaining the need and benefits of the program.

During the second week a lay person from the parish, normally the parish finance council chair, will speak at Mass about the campaign. Then a Commitment Sunday is scheduled at which parishioners are asked to return an envelope at Mass indicating how much they plan to give in the regular parish collections.

“We will ask that if you’re now giving $5, can you give $6?” Mr. Moran said, explaining that people are asked to consider a 20 percent increase in their regular offering.

“If you’re giving $20, can you give $24?”

Many who use parish envelopes have not raised their level of giving in many years, Mr. Moran said, although they realize that costs have risen sharply.

He also cautioned against asking for a specific flat giving commitment from all parishioners such as $20 per household. “If that happens,” he said, “some who are now giving $40 a week would reduce it to $20.”

John Barrett, director of the diocesan Office of Finance, told those at the meetings that he had contacted 10 pastors in the Diocese of Arlington who had adopted Mr. Moran’s Increased Offertory campaign. All of them said that the increases resulting from the campaign were sustained with most of them seeing a 25 percent increase. One parish had even seen a 45 percent increase, he said.

He said the total cost of the five-week fundraising effort was $540,000, all of which will be paid by the diocese.

“It requires no staff or volunteers on your part,” Mr. Barrett said. “It depends entirely on you and your parish community.”

Earlier Bishop DiLorenzo stated that there was no set goal for any parish to achieve.

“You do what you’re able to do,” he said. “You have to depend on people’s honesty and their willingness to give in order to have this plan work.”

Some of those who attended the meeting in Richmond said they felt priority should be given to Catholic children regarding enrollment in Catholic schools.

There was also a request to allow Catholic children in parishes without a Catholic school to be able to attend a school at the same in-parish tuition rate offered to parishioners who send their children to their parish school.

This point was raised by Sharon Phillips, administration director at Church of the Redeemer, Mechanicsville, who said parishes without a Catholic school could be adversely affected if the same tuition rate did not apply.

Some parishioners, she suggested, might leave their home parish and register at another parish with a school so they could take advantage of the lower tuition costs.

“We certainly do want to give the advantage to our Catholic students,” Mrs. Parsons responded.

While several Catholic schools have a substantial number of non-Catholic students, priority is normally given to Catholic students when there is a waiting list for admission.

All but smaller mission parishes, most of whom are in southwest Virginia where there is only one Catholic school (St. Anne’s in Bristol) are expected to participate in the Increased Offertory campaign. Parishes have the option of beginning the program whenever they feel it is best, but Mr. Moran suggested that they not begin the program during the summer when many families are on vacation.

Most have said they will begin the program in the fall.

Mr. Barrett said that a six-month report will be published in The Catholic Virginian so “you will know what is coming in and how it is being used.”

The first real benchmark of the success of the campaign will be at the end of the second fiscal year, Mr. Barrett said.

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