As the annual Catholic Services Appeal unfolds this fall, we’ll all get introduced once again to the services the Archdiocese of Louisville provides, to the ministries it undertakes, to the powerful ideals and efforts it sustains in our community.
Many of those efforts and ministries are recounted each week in The Record. And during the coming weeks we’ll have stories that will remind everyone of the programs and values of the archdiocese — and the need to support its ministries financially. Look for the “CSA” logo that will appear in each story that has, at its heart, the efforts of programs, departments and services supported by the annual Catholic Services Appeal.
There’s a tendency to take for granted things that have been around awhile — things that have been traditionally successful. In the Archdiocese of Louisville, there are annual programs and efforts that we may be tempted to take for granted. We assume their success, because they’ve been successful in the past.
We shouldn’t let that happen with the Catholic Services Appeal. We shouldn’t assume that, because the people of the archdiocese have been generous in the past, because the appeal has been a decades-long success story, that it can get along just fine without us.
It’s true that the CSA has a storied history of accomplishment. But it is just as true to note with great seriousness the value — the necessity — of many of the programs and ministries throughout the archdiocese that depend upon the CSA for funding.
What began in 1968 as the annual Archdiocese Development Fund has achieved success over the years through hard work and generosity. It hasn’t just happened; the people of the archdiocese have made it happen through their diligence, their dedication and their sacrifice.
Nicholas K. Eve, director of the Office of Stewardship and Development for the archdiocese, remembers when the fund-raising efforts of the annual appeal were far more primitive than they are these days.
He recalls his father being one of the parish men who went door to door collecting funds for the annual effort.
“As I recall it, he was given a certain number of households to visit, as were some other men of the parish,” Eve said last week.
That humble beginning is part of what is now a long and accomplished history.
We’ve all seen the lists of ministries, departments and services funded by the appeal. But don’t take it for granted; don’t let this year’s compilation skip by unnoticed. Examine the following bullet-points; know how important your annual contribution will be to continuing the work of the archdiocese.
CSA funds in the past year have:
- Established a free medical clinic at the Sister Visitor Center and served 350 patients.
- Provided emergency assistance to 13,601 people for rent, utilities, food, clothing, personal and household items and prescriptions.
- Provided 721 mothers and fathers-to-be with education, information, counseling, baby items and referral to community agencies.
- Assisted nearly two dozen individuals who were victims of human trafficking and trained 2,135 people to provide services to address the trafficking problem.
- Resettled 803 refugees; placed 609 of them in the local work force, and taught 607 people in Catholic Charities English Language School.
- Sponsored four “Back-to-School Fairs” in metro Louisville at the Catholic Enrichment Center and in the rural community. Those fairs served more than 700 families.
- Held marriage preparation classes or retreats for 409 couples and marriage enrichment opportunities for 75 couples.
- Provided more than 1,200 hours of pastoral visitation to patients at area hospitals.
- Held two seasons of the Why Catholic? program with more than 7,000 parishioners taking part.
The list could go on — the items that could be mentioned are far more numerous than this space allows. The point is simple and direct: The work of the archdiocese is broad, thorough, diverse and important. The Catholic Services Appeal makes it possible. It helps us “Bring Christ to Others.” Let’s never take it for granted.
Glenn Rutherford
Record Editor
