Church-goers should use the opportunity to make contact with parishioners they haven’t seen in a while and seek to identify a new generation of leaders, he said at the March 14 kick-off event at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Newport.
The event also drew representatives from other Monroe County parishes included among the 43 parishes in the third wave of CLT, the $135 million capital campaign that aims primarily to strengthen parishes but will also yield benefits to some archdiocese-level programs.
“It’s very much a parish-focused initiative,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “At least 70 percent of what each parish raises stays in the parish to fulfill your plan — what you have said you need to do so that your parish will, for the next generation, be a vibrant community and hand down our faith to our children and grandchildren.”
For a parish such as St. Charles Borromeo, which has set its goal — of $3.7 million — at a higher figure than the target assigned by the archdiocese, an even higher percentage will stay with the parish, he said.
“Anything collected above the goal for your parish stays in the parish,” Archbishop Vigneron said, adding that in the Newport parish’s case, its proportion will be more like 95-98 percent.
The archdiocese will use its 30 percent of the $135 million in a number of ways that will make for a stronger local Church in coming years, he explained. The largest share, $15 million, will strengthen an endowment established in the mid-1990s that provides tuition assistance for Catholic families to send their children to Catholic schools.
Then, $8 million will be devoted to the education of priests, seminarians and lay Catholics who serve the Church in roles such as catechists and pastoral ministers.
Another $4 million would create an endowment to assist city parishes, the archbishop said.
“The people in the city of Detroit need the Catholic Church — certainly, whatever services we can offer, those are important — but the most important thing the city of Detroit needs is the Holy Eucharist. We need to continue to make the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus available in the city ofDetroit,” Archbishop Vigneron said.
The archbishop said he was “very proud” of the $34 million already pledged by the approximately 23,000 Catholics who participated in the first two of five campaign waves. The fundraising aspect of the campaign is scheduled to conclude in the summer of 2013.
Archbishop Vigneron emphasized that the campaign is not just about asking for contributions from parishioners, but also about asking God for His support and guidance.
“It’s very, very important for all of us to pray that God bless us in what we are trying to accomplish, and that He use us — that He help us understand what He wants, that He gives us the strength to make whatever sacrifice we can, and that He draw us together,” he said.
David Kelley, the archdiocese’s director of development, called Changing Lives Together a campaign with “a beginning, but no end.”
“Wrapped up in the middle of it is a fundraising campaign,” he said, “but it has no end because changing lives is what God does — and He never stops.”
Kelley called the results so far “a great witness to hope,” and added that the ambitious goal set by St. Charles Borromeo “is just an unbelievable witness to hope.”
The parish has adopted a building plan to be funded by the CLT campaign that includes a new parish center, adding classrooms to its school, the relocation of a playing field and demolition of some structures.
“We can and will reach our goal,” Fr. Victor Romon, the parish’s pastor, said, “because it will be transparent, accountable, and you will see the results, because it will be visible as we spend your money.”
