Well, for the last two weeks, the Appeal has been a central effort of most parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington DC. We have been asked to pray for those who give (and for those who do not give), bulletin announcements have been printed, direct mailings have been made, and a multitude of stories in the Catholic Standard.
A taped message, by Archbishop Wuerl, was played at each Mass. Sorry to say, when I could hear it, it was a pretty lackluster appeal.
Then, once again, we were given forms to complete. Now maybe the Archdiocese feels that it gets a better response by telling people to pick up the form, take a pencil, and fill in your last name, your name and the name of your spouse. Then enter in your address -- street, city and zip code. You get the idea.
Sorry, we are not idiots, contrary to popular opinion. We know how to complete the forms and if we want to, we will do it.
Once again, I urge you not to give.
As I have written before:
the most fundamental to me is the fact that we continue to let pro-abortion, anti-true marriage politicians continue to receive Holy Communion on our parishes, but say/do nothing. To me, that is the our current scandal.
Our clergy and religious celebrate the election of a pro-abortion politicians, or praise them when they have died.
We have anti-Church groups meeting on a regular basis in our parishes.
When pro-gay legislation is passed, our Archbishop remains silent.
But as I have said before, find a group that supports the teachings of the Magesterium or helps those less fortunate directly. Give the funds directly to them.
Then, and only then, with the Archbishop get the message.
5 comments:
While I agree with you on the lack of correction of outrageous behaviors, I do disagree with the blanket statement with regards to the entire appeal. For example, one of the things that are currently being paid by the appeal are my formation classes (and retreats) for the permanent deaconate. Also paid by the appeal are all the respect for life activities sponsored by the ADW.
Actually, Archdiocene funds are being cut for the ONE Pro life Center the Archdiocese supports:
Birthing and Care Center in College Park, Md.
I feel it is much more important to give directly to the Archdiocene school or organization I want to support. At least I have a pretty good idea it will not go to The Campaign for Human Development (Acorn). Perhaps if there was more transparency within the Archdiocese and not some goofy pie chart, they might be more believable.
In our parish, the pastor took the bare minimal approach to presenting the Appeal. He did not do anything more than he had to, and he generally sounded flat and unenthusiastic. There are many reasons not to give to the Appeal. For me the way the Archbishop has approached the Catholic schools situation provides plenty of reason not to support the Appeal. The Archbishop has closed far too many schools, and he appears to have plans to close still more schools. There seems to be no coherent plan to what is going on. Some parishes with larger numbers of Catholic children are seeing their schools close, while other parishes with practically no Catholic children receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from the Archdiocese. It does not make sense. Give to your parish or some other reliable Catholic charity, not to the Appeal.
To the 2nd Anon...it sounded like my pastor. Wonder if we are in the same parish?
I hope we are not in the same parish, since I want there to be as many parishes as possible where the pastor was not enthusiastic about the Appeal.
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