Yesterday's D&C story on the official kickoff of DOR's 2008-09 Catholic Ministries Appeal has garnered a very interesting comment from redandwhite:
This is a mission everyone can and should support," Clark said in a statement. "The CMA is about taking care of one another — family, neighbors and those in need. It is about passing on the faith and spreading the good news to others so that they, too, can receive the light of Christ.................."
Hmmmmm, the same could have been said of his Catholic School system. Oh well, good luck with this years' CMA drive, hope they don't need another organ or stained glass window this year.
7 comments:
I cannot give any money to this appeal. I'll try to make it up to my parish in some way. If people would withhold their donations this year it would make a statement that only someone with an addled mind could ignore.
The powers that be at the DOR seem to think that we are too stupid to see through their transparent deceptions. If the Bishop isn't willing to publicly address the school situation and the bitterness he has created, then I don't think the public humiliation of a monetary no-confidence vote is out of line.
Let him take all the money. Pledge NOTHING!
CathParent,
I agree with you 100%.
My usual CMA donation will go instead to my parish. If the bishop wants it he will have to confiscate it.
The pledge card - with $0.00 written in - will go back to him with a cover letter explaining in detail why he is getting nothing.
I'm already working on that cover letter and it may just possibly become an "open letter" and be posted here.
Oh, I'm with you. My money will go directly to the parish and Father can use it how he sees fit. He'll probably need it to cover the "tax", oops, I meant CMA bill.
In reading the DOR website regarding the CMA 2 items caught my attention. The 1st was the theme "our faith,our future" with a brochure covered with pictures of children. Oh the irony.
The 2nd was the fact that the DOR's CMA campaign gets a bigger slice of the pie than Catholic schools (6% vs. 5%). Truly disheartening that they spend more money trying to get money than they do on education.
That 5% for schools will be going down if my son's school is any indication. They haven't been allowed to hire aides or aftercare personnel yet, despite the number of students jammed in there.
Most of the parents are of the mind that the diocese is trying to make a profit on the schools now.
CathParent wrote, "That 5% for schools will be going down if my son's school is any indication. They haven't been allowed to hire aides or aftercare personnel yet, despite the number of students jammed in there."
Something I saw on Channel 10 Monday evening might bear on that. Ray Levato's report on the CMA kickoff during either the 5:00 to 5:30 or the 5:30 to 6:00 time slot (I forget now which one I happened to catch) was longer than that which aired later and is archived on their web site.
During that longer report it was mentioned that the current retention rate for displaced students is actually only 41%, not the 48% predicted by the bishop's "experts."
That would mean that a few hundred kids aren't paying tuition that the diocese had counted on in it's budget and could lead to belt-tightening throughout the system.
Hi Mike,
I wrote a letter a few years ago with my uncompleted CMA pledge card. Not surprisingly, I received no response. I went into detail about my concerns over inadequate catechesis, tolerance of marked dissent from the pulpit and a total disregard for Rome. I'm sure the letter found its way to the nearest trash receptacle.
I have not donated to the CMA in 3 years now. Instead I support my church weekly and fund other worthy Catholic charities. Until our diocese gets serious about actually proclaiming the FULLNESS of the Catholic faith, I won't support this annual taxation.
Nerina,
I've written the bishop twice and received replies both times.
The first was during the kickoff for the Partners in Faith campaign and I was complaining that (according to my pastor at the time) pastors had been instructed to use the Sunday homily time to give their parishioners detailed instructions on how to correctly fill out their pledge cards.
The bishop's reply focused on the importance of the PIF drive and pretty much ignored my point about this being a totally improper use of the time reserved for the homily.
The second was about 2 years ago and I was expressing my concern about our rapidly declining Mass attendance.
The bishop punted this one over to Fr. Hart, who invented the "dramatic depopulation" myth in his reply.
So I've received replies, but I wouldn't call either a real response.
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