The Diocese of Sacramento is in the early stages of a major fund-raising campaign designed to address some of the local church’s most pressing needs.

The campaign, entitled “Preserving Our Past, Building Our Future,” seeks to raise at least $50 million for new programs and initiatives in several areas (see Funds in Action, page 3):

• Catholic education and faith formation: $16 million.

• Parish support: $12 million.

• Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament restoration: $10 million.

• Priests’ retirement and retirement housing: $7 million.

• Catholic social ministries: $5 million.

“As Catholics, we want to pass on to future generations the precious heritage and gifts that have been passed on to us. The campaign we are launching makes that possible,” said Bishop William K. Weigand, noting that the initiative is the first major capital campaign in the diocese in 40 years. “This kind of future planning is long overdue.”

The campaign will address capital needs, in addition to creating new endowment funds that will provide a perpetual source of funding for present needs and future challenges, according to Chad Bortle, the campaign’s executive director. Bortle works for Community Counseling Services, a consulting firm hired to oversee the campaign that has conducted similar campaigns in many U.S. dioceses.

“It’s a very ambitious, yet attainable project,” Bortle noted. “The campaign will help ensure a strong and vibrant church here for the new century. What we’re talking about is sacrificial giving. The key is to have the laity involved—parishioners visiting fellow parishioners with the good news of this campaign, asking them to really consider their financial commitment to the local church.”

Ten pilot parishes have been selected to kick off the campaign, some which have begun in the past month and the rest that will start Sept. 8-9. The pilot parishes will conclude their campaigns in November.

A diocesan-wide launch of the campaign is slated for January, when approximately 45 more parishes (Block 1 parishes) are scheduled to begin the campaign and major donors will be publicly announced. The final group of parishes will conduct their campaigns beginning in March 2002, with the campaign concluding in July of next year.

The fund-raising goals for each parish were developed by a 15-member priests’ advisory committee, based on a formula combining each church’s annual income and the number of registered parish households.

Priests in the diocese “recognize the needs this campaign addresses and recognize that there is something in it for each parish,” said Msgr. Albert O’Connor, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Elk Grove, priests’ coordinator for the campaign and chairman of the priests’ advisory committee.

“This is seen as an opportunity to address parish needs in a joint, collaborative effort with everyone working together,” he added. “The campaign reaches across a whole spectrum of needs and projects, all of which are desperately needed. There’s a lot of good will among the clergy about it.”

To raise the money, parish volunteers will group into teams and hit the streets, visiting parishioners at home and calling them on the phone. Volunteers will ask parishioners to make a five-year pledge and “to do their best in an honest effort to reach the parish goal,” Bortle said.

Bishop Weigand and his advisers have been planning and preparing for the campaign for more than a year.

In the spring of 2000, the Greenwood Company of San Francisco conducted a feasibility study, interviewing more than 65 priests and lay leaders in the diocese, to assess the financial and fund-raising possibilities for major projects. The results of that study were presented to the diocesan Council of Priests, who helped Bishop Weigand refine the campaign’s mission. The priests’ advisory committee, which began its work in February, continues to advise him on policies for parish participation in the campaign.

The bishop first notified diocesan clergy of the campaign plans late last year, then unveiled a more detailed summary at a clergy meeting in mid-May.

While there is never a perfect time for such an undertaking, he said, the urgency indicated by the diocese’s growing population base convinced him that the campaign must take place now.

“We live in one of the fastest growing areas of the nation,” Bishop Weigand said. “Not to do some kind of planning for future needs of the Catholic community here would be shortsighted.”

While the population of the diocese’s 20 counties grows and resources expand, “ironically, so do the needs of the poor,” the bishop added. “It is important that we plan for more extensive aid to the poor and the homeless in this campaign.”

Likewise, Catholic school enrollments are expected to see an increase in the next decade, the bishop said. “Catholic schools need to continue to be made available to Catholic families,” he noted. “And access by lower-income families needs to be increased and tuition assistance enhanced.”

The $12 million component for parish support represents a “fair share” formula, in which parishes get back 25 percent of all funds raised in the parish up to its target goal, and 50 percent of all funds thereafter.

Each parish will raise funds for its own identified, specific needs. These may include building expansion, repairs and renovations, debt reduction, endowments, or a base of funding for a variety of parish ministries. Parishes with major capital (called combined) campaigns will retain a larger portion of funds raised in that parish, after meeting their obligation to the diocesan church.

The success so far of the pilot parishes is “very encouraging,” Bishop Weigand said. “Some pastors I have talked to are quite moved by the willingness of people to help.”

One of the pilot parishes, Holy Trinity in El Dorado Hills, has already been working on its fund-raising effort for about a month, enlisting the help of about 150 to 200 volunteers to make home visits to parishioners with information about the campaign.

“I was very excited and thought this campaign was long overdue,” said Pat McClain, a parishioner for eight years who is co-chairman of the parish effort with Wayne Gilliam. McClain, who has been involved in two other fund-raising efforts at Holy Trinity, noted “it’s the sacrifice that’s important. I think this will be one of the easiest campaigns we have ever run, because it’s got such a broad appeal for our own parish and for the needs of our larger church.”

The number of parishioners at Holy Trinity has doubled in the past three years. The parish aims to raise $931,000 as its goal for the diocesan combined campaign, with a overall goal of at least $4 million to build a new parish life center, which will include an education center, a multi-purpose/social hall building, an administration/library building, a pre-school, child care center and an additional 140 parking spaces. The parish expects to complete all the buildings in the next five years.

The education center will include one multi-functional classroom for each grade K-8, with the intent to break ground for a Catholic school sometime in 2002, McClain said. Classrooms will be used for daily classroom space, as well as evening and weekend space for youth, senior and adult education.

At another pilot parish, Holy Family in Portola, parishioners have been “very receptive” to the campaign and the initial phase has been successful, said Father Glenn Dare, pastor.

He said the parish plans eventually to use funds raised to pay off its debt to the diocese, repair the hall at Holy Rosary Mission Church in Loyalton and hire a part-time youth minister and part-time secretary.

Parishioners in the diocese may ask how the “Preserving Our Past, Building Our Future” campaign differs from the Diocesan Stewardship Appeal, a yearly campaign that usually begins each year in February, according to Mimi Scherber, diocesan director of stewardship and development.

The appeal provides essential annual operating support to Catholic Charities and Catholic social services, as well as scholarships to Catholic schools, medical care for infirm priests, priests’ and seminarian education, parish development and various other community outreach projects to assist children, seniors and others most in need.

Scherber said the campaign will allocate $1 million to the Diocesan Stewardship Appeal in 2002 in place of a separate DSA collection. The DSA will be reorganized and resume in 2003.

Contact the campaign office at (916) 733-0172 for more information. Future editions of The Catholic Herald will contain more detailed articles about the campaign.

Copyright © 2001 Diocese of Sacramento - All Rights Reserved

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