By GLENN RUTHERFORD
Record Editor
Last weekend, most pari-shioners in the Archdiocese of Louisville received a personal invitation to participate in this year’s Catholic Services Appeal from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz. And it didn’t take long for some people to respond.
Nicholas K. Eve, director of the archdiocesan Office of Stewardship and Development, said that by Tuesday morning, Oct. 2, his office had already received more than 1,000 responses containing either contributions or pledges to the 2012-2013 appeal — which continues last year’s theme of “Bringing Christ to Others.”
“We seem to be well ahead of last year’s start,” Eve said during a telephone interview. “It’s a very encouraging number to have — 300 responses — so quickly after the archbishop’s initial mailing.”
In his letter to the people of the archdiocese, Archbishop Kurtz noted the “hundreds of ways in which archdiocesan ministries and services are changing people’s lives.”
He referred to an unemployed single mother who was sent to the Catholic Enrichment Center in West Louisville, where she attended an eight-week program that taught effective resume’ writing, job interviewing techniques and other skills. Today, the archbishop said, the young woman is an assistant program coordinator at a local school.
The Catholic Enrichment Center, and the training the young woman received, were all made possible by the Catholic Services Appeal.
“What people received in their letters was their first invitation to participate in this year’s appeal,” said Eve, who noted that the goal of the CSA is to raise $2.75 million.
A second invitation will occur the weekend of Oct. 13-14 with the campaign’s first “In-Pew Weekend.”
Enrollment forms will be available in the pews of parishes throughout the archdiocese, Eve noted, and the weekend will also “provide pastors the opportunity to speak about the appeal and give people another opportunity to respond.”
A second “In-Pew Weekend” will be held Oct. 20-21, and Eve said those four dates are important because they reach individuals who might not be registered at a parish and who therefore would not have received the archbishop’s letter about the CSA.
“There are a number of Catholics who aren’t formally registered in a parish to participate in the work of the church,” he explained. “This gives us a chance to make sure that they, too, receive an invitation to take part in the appeal.”
There will also be a CSA form mailed to the people of the archdiocese along with the Oct. 18 and Nov. 1 editions of The Record.
“The idea is to provide multiple opportunities for people to learn about the CSA, about the importance of the ministries and work funding by the CSA, and to give them a chance to be a part of it all,” Eve said.
The pledge fulfillment period will run from November through June of next year.
