Florida Catholic | Financial Challenges Ahead

Archbishop’s appeal: Serious financial challenges ahead

Donors are told that the declining economy means the church has to help more parishes, schools and people.

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC MIAMI BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 01.25.08

St. Gregory first-grader Nicholas Tarnowski collects pledge envelopes during the ArchBishop's Charities and Development (ABCD) luncheon in Broward Jan. 15. Collection for the appeal will be taken up in the parishes the weekend of Jan. 26-27.
ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

DAVIE | Good news mixed with bad news at the luncheon that kicked off the 2008 ArchBishop’s Charities and Development appeal in Broward County.

While south Florida’s Catholics can rejoice over the “miracle of Miami” — a diocese that has grown tremendously in just 50 years — a slowing economy and the high cost of living in Florida are forcing Archbishop John C. Favalora “to look seriously at our finances.”

“We have more parishes now that are subsidized than when I arrived 13 years ago. We have more schools that are subsidized,” the archbishop told more than 500 Broward County parishioners who gathered for the luncheon Jan. 15.

“What is happening in the economy and in our country is affecting us now, very seriously,” the archbishop said.

He cited the “widening gap” between the rich and poor and expressed a reluctance to cut back on archdiocesan support for struggling parishes and schools because “that’s where our people have their sacramental contact, their evangelization contact.”

Funds from the ArchBishop’s Charities and Development, or ABCD, collection go to Catholic Charities, schools and parishes in need, vocations and seminarians, repairs and maintenance of church facilities, Catholic media and archdiocesan ministries such as the outreach to youths and young adults.

The ABCD collection has been held since the archdiocese was founded in 1958.

Archbishop Favalora alluded to the archdiocese’s golden jubilee, and to the biblical tradition of a jubilee year, when he pointed out that the Jewish people did not plant any crops that year as a reminder that everything they had came from God.

That 49th year — 7 times 7 years — “was always an act of faith in divine providence,” Archbishop Favalora said.

He asked south Florida’s Catholics to “make an extra special sacrifice (this year) indicating our dependence upon God when we help other people.”

• The Archdiocese of Miami Development Corp. has a new Web site that allows people to make and pay their ArchBishop’s Charities and Development pledges online by credit card.

• The Web site includes a copy of this year’s ABCD video and brochure, as well as information on how ABCD funds are spent.

• Go to: www.isupportabcd.org.

The good news is that ABCD collected $11 million in pledges in 2007, and nearly $10 million of those pledges have been paid off. Those are record-setting figures for the ABCD, said Emilio Alonso Mendoza, president of the Catholic Community Foundation and the archdiocesan Development Corp.

The number of donors also increased from just more than 24,000 last year to nearly 28,000 this year. Alonso Mendoza said that, aside from the money collected, another ABCD goal is to keep increasing the number of Catholic families who make pledges.

“We’re a record-setting diocese,” he said, noting that Miami’s church was growing so fast at one point in its history that it became known as the “miracle of Miami.”

But setting records implies meeting challenges, and “we now have a mammoth job ahead of us in the archdiocese. Every day our needs grow,” Alonso Mendoza said.

He asked those at the luncheon — and Catholics throughout the archdiocese — to “reflect on all the good things you have received in the past years and all the good things you hope for your children and your grandchildren. The things that you have in life you can’t take with you. But those blessings you have in life, you can use to help so many people.”

ABCD pledges will be taken up in the parishes the weekend of Jan. 26-27. Another ABCD luncheon was to take place in Miami Jan. 23, followed by a dinner in the Florida Keys Feb. 4.

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