Featured News

CSA pledges top goal by $1.2M

By Robert Delaney
Of The Michigan Catholic
Published July 15, 2005

DETROIT — Pledges for the 2005 Catholic Services Appeal have exceeded the campaign's goal by more than $1.2 million, with about 170 parishes and missions having topped their individual targets.

As of last Friday, $17,801,045 had been pledged to the annual drive to fund most of the ministries of the Archdiocese of Detroit, well above this year's overall goal of $16,563,016. The total is expected to rise still more in coming weeks as the rest of the 307 parishes and missions in the archdiocese complete their CSA campaigns.

"Once again, the people of the Archdiocese of Detroit have shown their support of the Catholic Services Appeal and the valuable ministry done in its name," said Cardinal Adam Maida upon being informed of the figures.

"As our parishes and schools help to plan for the future of the Church of Detroit through the Together in Faith process, the generosity of our people is especially gratifying. I would also acknowledge the hard work done by our priests and lay volunteers in this year's campaign drive," he added.

Among ministries funded by the annual CSA are the archdiocesan departments of Education and Parish Life & Services, as well as Sacred Heart Major Seminary, the CTND Catholic cable TV channel and the Metropolitan Tribunal.

Scholarships and grants for seminarians and people studying for lay ministry positions at the seminary also come out of CSA funds. Some chaplaincies are supported by CSA dollars, and the CSA also provides a subsidy for The Michigan Catholic.

"We are actually about half-a-million dollars ahead of where we anticipating we would be at this point in time," said Michael Murphy, director of the archdiocesan Department of Development, which oversees the CSA collection.

"The response certainly gives witness to how people in our local Church value the ministries supported by the CSA in urban, suburban and rural communities," he said.

Murphy said the strong response might have been helped by the Together in Faith process that parishes have been participating in to help develop a strategic plan for the archdiocese.

"The self-evaluations the parishes have conducted may have helped give them a greater appreciation for the ecclesiology of the larger Church – how each individual worshipping community is part of a larger Church whose ministries help us all," he continued.

When people consider ministries such as Catholic education, vocation discernment, parish pastoral planning and the provision of social services, "it helps them see the richness of what we do as a local Church that no single parish can do on its own," Murphy added.

Besides supporting archdiocesan ministries, the CSA can serve as a fund-raising vehicle for parishes. Every dollar pledged and collected over and above a parish's set target is returned to the parish, Murphy explained.

In fact, oversubscribing its CSA target is the only way parishes can raise money that is not subject to the cathedraticum, the 6 percent assessment levied against all other parish income.

The 30 new parishes and missions to have exceeded their goals as of last Friday are:

• St. Mary Mystical Rose, Armada
• Resurrection, Canton Township
• St. Claude, Clinton Township
• St. Paul of Tarsus, Clinton Township
• St. Barbara, Dearborn
• St. Martha, Dearborn
• St. Mel, Dearborn Heights
• Holy Cross (Hungarian), Detroit
• Nativity of Our Lord, Detroit
• Our Lady Help of Christians, Detroit
• Our Lady of the Rosary, Detroit
• Our Lady Queen of Heaven, Detroit
• St. Louis the King, Detroit
• St. Philomena, Detroit
• St. Raymond, Detroit
• St. Irene, Dundee
• Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, Port Huron
• Our Lady of Good Counsel, Plymouth
• Our Lady of Lourdes, River Rouge
• St. Mary, Rockwood
• St. Athanasius, Roseville
• St. Clement of Rome, Romeo
• St. Ives, Southfield
• St. Mary, St. Clair
• St. Anne, Warren
• St. Louise de Marillac, Warren
• St. Mark, Warren
• St. Martin de Porres, Warren
• Divine Savior, Westland
• Our Lady of the Woods, Woodhaven