Speakers say stewardship is about appreciating God's blessings

Published: 2007-10-03

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (CNS) -- It takes money to operate the ministries of the church, but the message of the 2007 conference of the International Catholic Stewardship Council was that promoting stewardship is really about encouraging appreciation of God's blessings and a sense of gratitude. However, the pastor of a parish honored during the Sept. 23-26 conference in Miami Beach went one better, saying that even encouraging a broader conception of stewardship is not the ultimate aim. "Stewardship is not the goal; evangelization is the goal. Stewardship is the means to the end, the how of evangelization," said Father Andrew Kemberling, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Centennial, Colo. His 6,500-family parish received the council's Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy Award for the parish that best exemplifies an all-round approach to stewardship. Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Cincinnati received an honorable mention. Father Kemberling said he believes many priests resist embracing stewardship because they hate asking for money, but he also believes more priests would promote stewardship if they understood it as a means to "calling people to discipleship."

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