Why it is Important That We Reached Our CMA Goal

This weekend I had the pleasure of announcing at Mass that, for the first time in long as anyone remembers, our parish reached our Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA) goal.  You can read the letter Bishop Matano wrote to our parish upon reaching our goal on our parish website.

It was my pleasure to announce this as good news for our parish for a few reasons.

First, I’ll be honest one reason is that it saves our parish money.  The goal is a mandated goal, meaning that if we don’t make our goal, the parish pays the difference out of our general budget.  Last year we paid just over $14,000.  So the fact that we made our goal saves our parish a lot of money.

Secondly, the CMA makes up over 50% of the entire revenue for our diocese each year.  We are not an isolated parish.  Rather we are part of a diocese and a world wide church.  We are called to share in the mission of our diocese.  The funds raised by the CMA help fund ministries like Catholic Charities and campus ministry.  It also enables the diocese to provide IT support on our computers and administrative support on all the regulations we need to follow.

This much I have said before (Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA).  Now, for what I want to say today.  I was my pleasure to announce this weekend that we met our goal because it means you listened to what I said throughout the year, you cared, and you responded.

I put a lot of work into the CMA from the posterboards in church to my homily last Fall to the information on our parish website and the bulletin articles but my efforts would have been for nothing if our parishioners had not responded so generously.  Even before my arrival as pastor here our parish had increased our CMA contributions from $30,097 in the 2011-2012 year to $36,971 in the 2015-2016 year.  This year we had 30 more households contribute than last year.  Many households who had already been contributing in recent years increased their giving.  So, we raised $8,804 more than last year.  This, together with the fact that the diocese lowered our goal by $5,834 made it possible for us to met our goal.

To show that every contribution matters, I want to include that two weeks ago, we were still $1,712 short of our goal.  I made one last plea for contributions at Mass and you listened.  A $1,700 donation was received leaving us just $12 shy of our goal.  Then came a $25 contribution that put us over the top (as well as a $12 contribution).  EVERY contribution matters.  The bigger contribution got us close but we never would have made our goal without all the little contributions.

To those who contributed and to those praying for a successful appeal, THANK YOU.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff