Aiming at a total of $275,000, the Archdiocesan Charities Drive achieved 95% success as of late Sunday night. The total reported collected was $261,077. The remaining 5% will be coming in within the next week as last returns and follow-up calls are made in the parishes.

“This success represents a two-fold generosity,” commented Father Jerry E. Hardy, chancellor of the archdiocese. “First there’s the increased generosity of the people of the Church of North Georgia who met an increased goal. But there’s also the very real generosity of the priests and their parish teams who work so hard to reach that increased goal.”

Parishes were allowed to retain any receipts over the amount of their stated goal. Based on that approach, a total of $283,817 has been collected, or an overage of $22,740 which remains in the parishes.

A parish-by-parish account of the money collected will appear in a future edition of the Bulletin.

At press time, all of the figures had not yet been received by the Chancery.