Diary of a Parish Priest

Warm Response to Bishop's Annual Appeal Video

 
Bishop O'Connell and Catholic Elementary School Students

 

Thank you for your warm response to the Bishop O'Connell's appeal to us through the video shown at all the masses today. In case you missed the message you can click here, or watch on the Bishop's Annual Appeal website.

Bishop's Annual Appeal 2011 from Trenton Diocese on Vimeo.

 

Increased Weekly Offertory Giving Program Underway

 

Along with all other parishes in the diocese, Holy Cross is appealing to parishioners to assess their level of weekly giving to the church and to increase it if possible.

Every registered parishioner and family should have received a letter from Fr. Manning asking for a commitment to weekly giving and its increase, even in these challenging economic times. No one is being asked to give money they don’t have, but everyone is being asked to assess their spending pattern

If you have not received a letter, it means you are not on our parish mailing list. Stop by the parish office to pick up a registration form, or take a packet from the back of the church (which as you may know, is open 24 hours daily, 7 days per week.)

Thank you for your past support and future generosity as we plan the future of Holy Cross parish!

 

2010 Diocesan Increased Offertory Program

 

Holy Cross along with all  parishes across the diocese is preparing to conduct an increased offertory program this coming Fall. Many parishes are struggling to maintain fiscal health in these trying economic times, and rather than emphasizing giving once to a specific fund, this program will emphasize the importance of weekly generosity to the parish church -more emphasis on stewardship and less on fund drives.

Sensitive to the criticism that the church is "always asking for money," we have seriously tried to limit the number of times we ask at church, directly or indirectly, inside the church and outside. Several of the requests come from outside the parish: the Bishop's Annual Appeal, the annual appeal from a visiting missionary and many of the routine non-diocesan collection envelopes and appeals included in the parish mailings. In past years, I have made an appeal for generosity at Christmas at some or all of the masses and with a special mailing and we try to provide the right amount of financial information in the bulletin on a weekly basis. I think that the number of fund raising requests from our school need study, from the big ones by the parish to many smaller ones by classes and drives for various causes.

The cost of the increased offertory campaign is being paid by the diocese and will be conducted by a firm called "Letter Concepts" with main office in Berlin, CT.

In-Pew Response to Bishop's Annual Appeal

Thank you to those who responded generously to the needs of our Diocese by completing a pledge card at last Sunday's masses. Over $ 14,000 in pledges were collected.

Contributions may be made online at The Bishop's Annual Appeal

Parishes Asked to Schedule "Reminder Weekends" for Bishop's Annual Appeal

Thanks to so many who contributed generously to Holy Cross at Easter, and to those who, with great difficulty are honoring pledges to the Lift High the Cross campaign. The good news of their generosity will soon appear on the Memorial Wall and be announced in the bulletin. For your dedication and honor to your pledge, the parish is truly grateful.

However, as many of you may have realized, the weekend scheduled for the Bishop's Annual Appeal In-Pew appeal was a weather disaster, and even though our appeal weekend was scheduled for a week later, the weather effects were still obvious. Our appeal response is significantly below the last two years.This week shows our total parish pledge at approx. $26,000 which is 26% of our total requested goal.

In fact, contributions to the Church were substantially down for at least three weeks, beginning the weekend of the storm.

Due to the storm, I must report that even the Pancake Breakfast, though it was a social success, barely broke even financially. Only with the donation of all three 50/50 raffle winners' proceeds back to the church did it realize a profit of $500. While the primary goal of this day was building community, the Men's Group also use the proceeds to help fund our bus to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. and the purchase of other materials for those children and young adults who attend the March.

Happily, it appears that Easter contributions were back on track to at least match last year's, though this depends on our receiving the usual number of Easter contributions in the mail  within the next few weeks.

The Diocese is a different matter, however, and they have asked parishes who have not acheived 85% of their goal to repeat an in-pew reminder weekend (without the Bishop's video) on April 24 - 25th. Please be generous and make a contribution once again this year, or consider a new contribution if you have never made one before, so that Holy Cross can do its part to sustain the Church of the Diocese of Trenton of which we are an important part. Please be patient with this effort if you have already made a donation and realize we take part in this effort to be faithful to the local diocesan church from which our identity flows.