Last year Holy Cross Church in Charlotte missed raising its Catholic Ministries Appeal assessment by just over $8,200. As a reward, this year the diocese has raised that assessment by more than $5,000.
Holy Trinity in Webster has fared even worse. Last year they fell almost $18,000 short and so this year's CMA assessment has been raised by over $9,300.
Both parishes had their schools closed by Bishop Clark in 2008.
Updated Table of Year over Year CMA Assessments:
A little help, please!
The above table is far from complete. If you know the 2009-10 CMA assessment for any of these parishes please leave a note in the comment box.
15 comments:
Also worth mentioning that both of these churches are older structures with the tabernacle located in the center. I think the bishop is trying to shut these churches down.
HT was also slapped last year, so in two years their assessment rose $22,000.
I guess that's what we get for not rolling over and playing dead.
How can the diocese INCREASE an assessment (and I won't use the word goal) when the church had trouble meeting last year's tax? The economy is worse, Mass attendance numbers continue to decrease and the diocese thinks upping the ante is a good idea? I am befuddled.
What I really, really resent is the months of begging that we'll have to endure while the campaign takes place. Every homily will be about the CMA. Ugh.
HT is in a bad spot because they are assessed at the same rate as other Webster parishes, even though they have an older (fixed-income) base to draw funds from.
I've been saying it for the last couple of years. Bishop Clark will shut Holy Trinity! It's got a school, a beautiful gym (never played in thanks to the school being shut down) and wonderful fellowship space. Some Mega church will buy it up real quick, and the diocese will pocket all the money those dedicated parishoners sacrificed to put into it! I left the parish several years ago, but have been back for funerals etc. It is an awesome church. It will be sold over St. Pauls (very liberal) or Holy Spirit( no school) just because it will bring in a bigger price tag. St. Rita's won't be touched.
We also have all that land at HT, even if a large portion is the cemetery.
The gym is in constant use during the school year. It's impossible to rent the space until May. I just spoke to the AD, and the CYO program has doubled in the past year. They're going to have 7 or 8 teams, and many of the former school children have returned to play there.
Closing HT would probably net the diocese more money than HS, but when has the diocese based their decisions on money? My bet is HS will go because they are the most orthodox. It will come as a huge shock to everyone, because they're not paying attention to the bishop's real agenda.
This morning, the DOR web site has a link to parish by parish goals.
sorry. . must have been looking at a cached page. . . the parish goals for this year are not there.
There is a parish-by-parish goal tracking report for this year's CMA campaign on the DOR webpage at www.dor.org
The diocese usually posts the parish-by-parish report beginning a few weeks into the campaign. Mike posted something a while back saying this was another attempt at the diocese in hiding something. I do think he should apologize for that comment.
And I really don't understand why you're trying to connect schools and the various parishes' CMA assessments. None of the schools in Monroe County are parish schools. Siena Catholic Academy is a junior high school and not run by St. Thomas More Church. Seton is a regional school and not run by Our Lady of Lourdes. I think you're trying to make a correlation where none exists.
I've spoken to the principal of Siena and he told me that there were practically no students from St. Thomas More Church in his school. The old days of parishes running their own schools has been long gone in Monroe County.
Bishop Clark smells.
Anon. 5:04,
"The old days of parishes running their own schools has been long gone in Monroe County."
How true! And look what we have to show for it.
In 1988, when DOR first took control of all Catholic schools within Monroe County, it had a system comprised of 39 individual schools serving 16,044 students.
Today, some 21 years later, the MCCS has shrunk to 11 schools educating fewer than 4,000 children.
And, while we haven't had true parish schools in over 20 years, there are (or were) parishes and schools that remained strongly bonded to each other.
Holy Cross in Charlotte was one such parish. When the bishop first announced he was closing Holy Cross, a standing room only crowd turned out for the Mass offered by the parish and well over $300,000 was pledged in a mere 5 days in an effort to save the school. Similar events occurred at other parishes.
If that isn't a "correlation" then I don't know what one looks like.
Everybody reading this post should go out and buy a $1.00 Mega Lottery ticket on Friday. The jackpot is 145 million dollars.
You have to promise to buy the 13 Catholic Schools that Bishop Clark closed.
If I don't win tonight, I will buy a $1.00 Lotto ticket for the Saturday night drawing.
Anon. 8:19,
I bought my ticket Wednesday.
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