Print Issue: March 14, 2002
Archdiocesan Appeal Continues Church Mission
ATLANTA-Vocations. Catholic schools, religious education and faith formation. Catholic Charities. Pastoral outreach. These are just a few of the ministries that benefit from the money raised through the annual Archdiocesan Appeal, which is still underway.
This year's goal is $4.5 million for the appeal that is called "Our Church, Our Future." With the funds raised each year from the annual appeal, the programs and ministries of the archdiocese are able to be a central source of support for Catholics in North Georgia, responding to needs too large or too specialized to be met on the local parish level, said Ansley Murphey, archdiocesan development director.
So far, 81 percent, or $3.8 million, has been pledged, with 19 percent of 98,709 registered families participating in the 69 counties of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
What does the money go toward?
Catholic Education - $1,305,000 helps support the 14 archdiocesan schools and three archdiocesan high schools, as well as the Catholic campus ministry in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Vocations - Funds of $1,080,000 go toward the education of seminarians studying to be priests of the archdiocese. Currently there are 53 men studying for the priesthood who will eventually be ordained priests and will be serving in parishes throughout the archdiocese in the near future.
Catholic Social Services - $540,000 is earmarked for CSS to help them provide counseling services, pregnancy, parenting and adoption services which assists women in crisis pregnancies and provides an open adoption process; Community Connections/Parish Social Ministry, which works with issues of social justice at the parish level; Immigration Services, which assists people who have immigrated to the United States; and Migration and Refugee Services.
Religious Education and Faith Formation - This program uses $495,000 of the appeal funds to help the archdiocese is youth ministry and young adult ministry programs; family and children catechesis, archdiocesan adult formation and initiation of people into the Catholic faith, and toward lay formation and evangelization efforts; and toward the office of Hispanic catechesis. The Religious Education department oversees the catechesis of more than 100,000 children, youth and adults.
Catholic Charities - Catholic Housing Initiatives, Catholic Personal Care Homes, and the Village of St. Joseph, which offers child and adolescent counseling all benefit from $315,000 earmarked for this program.
Mission Development - $180,000 is used to develop and open new missions to serve North Georgia's growing Catholic population.
Office of Family Concerns uses $135,000 to help fund marriage preparation programs, National Family Planning programs in English and Spanish.
The Hispanic Apostolate receives $135,000 to help serve the archdiocese's growing Hispanic population.
Permanent Diaconate and Deacon Formation Center will receive $90,000 of the appeal funds. Currently there are 138 men serving as permanent deacons in the archdiocese, with more than 50 in formation.
The Office for Black Catholic Ministry will receive $67,500 from the appeal.
The Pro-Life Office is scheduled to receive $60,000 from the appeal.
Ministry to Persons With Disabilities, a new ministry of the archdiocese, will receive $45,000.
Project Aware, a program providing education, information and training to recognize child abuse and correctly respond to possible abuse, will receive $30,000 from the appeal funds.
Eucharistic Renewal is part of the church's continuing program on teaching about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; $22,500 has been slated for this program.
The total budgeted cost for these programs and ministries is $8.18 million; that figure does not represent the total archdiocesan budget.
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