DIOCESAN NEWS
04/30/10
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Each CSA gift important, bishop says
By Fabvienen Taylor
JACKSON — This weekend, May 1-2, parishioners will donate/pledge to the 2010 Catholic Service Appeal (CSA), the annual diocesan collection supporting seminarian education, campus ministry, Catholic Charities, mission parishes/schools, retired priests/clergy assistance and evangelization/faith formation.
“Each year I’ve been here I’ve been impressed with the CSA,” said Bishop Joseph Latino. “The thing that impresses me is when people are convinced an appeal is worthwhile, they dig deep to give to it.”
A recent example of this, he said, was the response to the special collection in the Diocese of Jackson for relief in Haiti after a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
“Over the last two to three months, people have contributed a quarter of a million dollars,” he said. In the April 23 Mississippi Catholic Bishop Latino thanked the people of the diocese for their generosity.
Money from the Haiti collection will be sent to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the international relief agency for the Catholic Church in the United States.
“When we ask people to support things valuable to them, such as the CSA, they do it,” he said.
The 2010 CSA theme is “One Family in Christ.”
As the 2010 CSA collection season begins, a new person, Rebecca Harris, is at the helm.
Hired July 1, 2009, Harris stepped into the shoes of George Roman, who retired last June, as director of Stewardship and Development.
“Of all the applicants for the position, Rebecca stood out because of the mission she saw in that position,” said Bishop Latino.
“Rebecca comes with a good background and strong experience as the director of development for Catholic Charities. She raised funds for Catholic Charities to perform all of the services.
“When Roman retired she saw an opportunity to broaden her scope of participation in working for the diocese,” he said.
“She is very easy to work with and had worked with George who encouraged her in fund-raising. In terms of the diocese, I think Rebecca has hit the ground running,” the bishop said.
Harris said her transition into the stewardship development director position was quite easy.
“While working at Catholic Charities, I always tried to work with George on the CSA,” said Harris.
“The CSA raises so much money to help Catholic Charities, I felt it was important to volunteer to help out George and his staff with CSA in whatever way I could.
“In the past, I helped with the CSA video, I served on the CSA Development Committee, and I would come and help sort through the pledges as they began to come into the office,” said Harris.
Each year as the CSA campaign progresses, Bishop Latino peruses updates comparing the current CSA with the previous year’s.
The bishop is provided figures of the number of parishes participating, donors, pledge amounts, down payments on pledges, the percentage of pledge completions and other data.
The number Bishop Latino looks the closest at is not the average amount of the gift, but the number of donors listed.
“What is important to me is not the size of the gift, what is important is that the number of donors is growing. Every gift is important.
“We send a thank-you, no matter how small the gift and I want people to know their prayers are gifts too,” Bishop Latino said.
He said if the average amount of the gift is lower, in his opinion, it does not reflect a change in terms of support towards the CSA.
“Gifts are lower I think because of the current economic challenges facing people. But I am encouraged,” he said.
Bishop Latino pointed out there are Catholic dioceses with much greater percentages of Catholics than the Jackson diocese’s 2.3 percent.
“You would think a diocese 65 percent Catholic would be way ahead of Jackson in terms of giving. But I know there are those that are not.
“The commitment in terms of support for the diocese is greater here,” he said. “We are a generous people.”
The 2010 CSA theme, “One Family in Christ,” Bishop Latino said, “is a good one. While we live in different counties, and we name our parishes after different saints, we all belong to the church of the Jackson diocese. We belong to one Roman Catholic Church.”
“We have very different communities but we are only one family. And if one member is in need, the whole family is concerned about that one in need, if it is a real family.”
This is where the CSA comes in, Bishop Latino said.
“The church reaches out through evangelization and in campus ministry. We support our retired priests. Many of them have limited funds from their years of ministry. The CSA helps them. The CSA helps small parishes and mission parishes and schools.
“Catholic Charities is the biggest area the CSA gives to and look at what it did last year,” he said, quoting from the 2010 CSA brochure.
“Last year Catholic Charities served over 29,000 children, women and families. Wow.”
Bishop Latino said the church of the Jackson diocese is not “just a made-up family. We all have the same Father, the same mother, Mary, the same brother, Jesus. It is a rather select family and our relatives are unique,” he said.
Harris was really excited about the theme chosen for this year.
“‘One Family In Christ’ represents the fact we are one Catholic family and we are all in this together,” she said.
“Our faith teaches us to reach out and help others. And that is such a blessing when you can make a difference in the lives of others.
“I hope each year the CSA message inspires our Catholic family and increases the number of donors.
“I want all members of our church to realize every dollar matters and no gift is too small. If we increase the number of donors, it shows we are united as a Catholic family and a family united to accomplish great things,” Harris said.
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