CSA funds increasing needs, bishop says By Fabvienen Taylor
JACKSON — The Diocese of Jackson is a top contributor to the annual collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious, having donated over $853,000 since the collection began in 1988.
And the Jackson diocese, with about 50,000 Catholics, in 15 annual Catholic Service Appeals (CSA) has averaged $1,000,000 in the last five of them, outstripping yearly appeals in dioceses with a higher percentage/greater number of Catholics.
Recently, the Extension Society alerted the Jackson diocese that Madison St. Francis of Assisi Parish led all parishes in the United States in financial support for its Hurricane Katrina partner parish, Pascagoula Our Lady of Victories.
“Since my first year as bishop here, March 7 was my fifth anniversary, I have always been impressed with the generosity of the people in this diocese. Especially when there is a disaster, the people really dig deep into their pockets. I am very proud of our diocese,” said Bishop Joseph Latino.
On Monday, April 14, Bishop Latino talked about the diocese’s ongoing commitment in meeting funding needs for the areas pinpointed in the CSA.
“Care to Share” is the theme of the 2008 CSA. Donation/pledge weekend is May 3-4.
Areas funded by the CSA are priest retirement/clergy assistance, seminarian education, campus ministry, evangelization, mission parishes/schools, and Catholic Charities.
“Basically the theme, ‘Care to Share,’ means God has blessed people with talents, with gifts, and with financial success and they, in turn are willing to give something back, to ‘care to share’ those blessings in appreciation for what God has given them,” Bishop Latino said.
The bishop particularly liked how “Care to Share” is expressed in the Vietnamese language, courtesy of Father Anthony Quyet, a diocesan priest.
“‘Divide Your Rice and Share Your Bread,’” is how they express it,” Bishop Latino said. “It’s the willingness of someone to give of one’s rice, of one’s bread with others. That’s a great quote.”
He said CSA funds have been dispersed in accordance with the needs, with the requests. People donate to the CSA at the diocesan level, over and above what they give to support their individual parishes.
Requests, he said, for appeal funds are not stagnant. “When you look at the areas funded, they are areas we absolutely need to fund,” he said.
So far, CSA allocations for 2007 amount to $961,601, with final pledges collected in the summer.
From that amount Catholic Charities received $448,772; priest retirement, $76,127; clergy medical, $30,642; seminarian education, $48,800; campus ministry, $87,260; mission schools/parishes, $125,000; and evangelization, $145,000.
“In the last five years alone,” according to George Roman, director of the Office of Stewardship, “the Catholics of our diocese have given generously to the CSA. The average pledge was $193 per donor. The percent collected on CSA pledges averaged 97.2 percent. The average amount collected was $1,073,186 per year.”
Charities gets the major share of CSA funds, he said “Then there is the education of seminarians, retired priests, campus ministry, mission parishes and so forth. When you look at all of those things, it’s like a nest with birdlings.”
The mother bird goes back and forth, back and forth, making sure each of the baby birds are fed, Bishop Latino said.
“The CSA appeal, which Bishop William Houck started over 15 years ago to meet six areas of need on a diocesan level, must continue today. And each year the demands grow,” he said.
Efforts to increase the number of seminarians has resulted in an increase of men studying for the priesthood in the diocese.
“We’ve got good news and bad news,” Bishop Latino said. “We’ve gotten more seminarians, because of prayer hopefully. The bad news is we can’t afford more. The cost of educating seminarians has increased too. But we will find the money somewhere.”
Each year Catholic Charities provides more services and, each year there are more demands for service.
“That means the requests for funds from the appeal will never be stagnant. Furthermore, I don’t think we will ever run out of requests,” the bishop said.
“We will always have the need to fund the education of seminarians, for mission parishes and schools, for Catholic Charities, for priest retirement. These are things, needs written in stone.”
Bishop Latino noted as service needs have increased, so have CSA donations.
“We’ve really been blessed. Every year there has been a slight increase, most years, and it’s been very welcome,” he said.
In the CSA appeal letters, Bishop Latino thanks people for their contributions.
“We also ask people to give a little more, if they can. Many people are on fixed incomes and if their situation is such they can’t give more, we want them to give only what they can,” the bishop said.
“The cost of living is going up and retirement income hasn’t increased. Gasoline has gone up and we hear how some people must choose between eating or purchasing their medical prescriptions,” he said.
“We understand when people can’t give a monetary gift, and we don’t want people to feel bad about that. We ask them to give us their prayers, to pray for the success of the areas the CSA funds. If you can’t give a nickel, please pray. Prayer is worth more than all the gold we get,” Bishop Latino said.
