The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has announced its capital campaign, outlining plans to raise $200 million to fund parishes, schools and other projects around the archdiocese.Heritage of Faith, Vision of Hope, is a program designed to help support projects by the archdiocese for parishes with immediate need and also for the long term.
The program will go in stages, with 40 parishes conducting their campaigns in the first wave. Parishes will participate in turn, with the campaign ending in 2010.
The pilot parishes for the program had a total goal of $7 million and they exceeded that goal by $2 million.
“As you know, last year the diocese celebrated its 200th anniversary,” said Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
“In doing that, we celebrated the great heritage of those that have gone before us. We have to now look forward to the next 200 years. In doing so, we had the opportunity to bring together a number of lay people to study the needs of the diocese as we’re going forward. We started a feasibility study to find our priorities and what we were going to do to address that.”
About 40 percent of the money raised by the campaign will be used to help parishes in need.
“Our first priority is to strengthen the life in our parishes,” Bishop McFadden said. “Many of them have needs in terms of repairs to buildings or facilities, or needs for their schools or churches. Part of the campaign will be to strengthen the parishes and get the resources needed for the parishes.”
Bishop McFadden said the needs for the parishes total about $400 million, but the archdiocese settled on a $200 million goal. Of that goal, $70 million dollars will go back to parishes to address their needs, and $10 million will be set aside to found an endowment for inner-city parishes.
Fr. John Babowitch, pastor of St. Barnabas parish, said his church was chosen as the place to hold today’s press conference because it was the first pilot parish to meet its campaign goal. The parish has since exceeded its goal of $335,000 and raised $451,560.
“When we first saw our goal we did not think we would hit it,” Fr. Babowitch said. But the country’s economic downturn did not deter his parishioners’ faith.
“I think they realized that sacrificial giving is very important and they have a great love for the parish and the archdiocese,” he said. “We know that the economic times are hard, but they do have a great love for the church.”
More than half of the nearly 900 families in St. Barnabas parish donated to the campaign. In addition to financing archdiocesan projects, money raised will also help St. Barnabas with its needs, which include a new church roof, restored stained glass windows, repainted church walls and brick pointing at the convent.
“Sacrificial giving is so important,” Fr. Babowitch reiterated. “It is a challenge for people, but it’s their great love for the church that’s going to cause them to give sacrificially for the church.”
St. Matthias parish in Bala Cynwyd was another pilot parish. Rev. Msgr. Arthur E. Rogers, pastor of the church, said pilot parishes were chosen in all counties representing a variety of socio economic levels “to show that this campaign would be successful in any area in the Archdiocese.”
“It isn’t what I expected; I didn’t think we would do as well as we did,” Msgr. Rogers said of his campaign. That parish raised $711,215, which is 109 percent of its goal.
“It basically comes down to one thought,” Msgr. Rogers said of the unexpected response. “The people love their church. The people want their church to be strong and carry on.”
About one third of the 700 families in St. Matthias parish contributed to the campaign.
Msgr. Rogers said the money would be used to promote a greater outreach to 20 and 30 year olds at St. Matthias, “to bring them into being more active in parish [and] to maintain a strong relationship with them as they move in as new parishioners.”
St. Francis de Sales parish in Southwest Philadelphia is the only pilot parish with a combined campaign. It was identified by the archdiocese as a parish with great needs.
“Once we met the goal for the Archdiocese, anything raised beyond that could be used at our parish for our extraordinary needs,” Rev. Zachary Navit, pastor of St. Francis de Sales, said.
That parish has raised $2,059,000, of which $250,000 will go to the archdiocese. A feasibility study indicated that St. Francis de Sales could raise $1 million; the parish well exceeded that goal with the help of one anonymous donor who gave $1 million.
Fr. Navit noted two needs of St. Francis de Sales parish: “restoration of our historic church building [which is over 100 years old]” and “strengthening and supporting parish outreach ministries, especially serving those in immediate need in the neighborhood.”
Both needs address parts of the parish’s pastoral plan, which was developed when it merged with Most Blessed Sacrament parish in July.
“The people in our parish are committed to the future, to handing on what they have received on a local level in persevering the church which is a historical treasure,” Fr. Navit said. “On a broader level, all of us are being served by needs of archdiocese and [through the campaign] are passing on what we have received.”
At the campaign’s inception, Fr. Navit was told, “Don’t put limits on people’s generosity.” “And that has proven true,” he said.
“The overall amount of money is modest,” said Dr. Rocco Martino, a member of the lay task force fore the archdiocesan campaign. “If you counted each Catholic in the archdiocese making a contribution over five years, it’s about the cost of a postage stamp per person.”
Dr. Martino said that private donations to the campaign are going well, that there have been some substantial donations made already, and more are coming.
“We’ve received all these things from the past generations,” said Bishop McFadden. “It’s our turn. We have to decide what are we going to do, going forward, but also to maintain these treasures we’ve received. We’re asking people to consider this as a sacrificial gift, to become stewards of the Church’s patrimony.”
Another top priority for the archdiocese is helping to maintain and expand its school system.
“The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has a proud history of Catholic education, dating back to St. John Neumann,” Bishop McFadden said.
“Years ago, the system was strengthened and run rather inexpensively because we had tremendous numbers of priests and religious teaching. Today we don’t have those numbers. We have laypeople that are just as dedicated, and we recognize that they need to be paid a just wage.”
The campaign goal would set aside $20 million for Catholic education, including an endowment for special education schools.
“We find that many people love the Church and their Catholic education, but many people didn’t pay anything for that education,” said Bishop McFadden. “It’s our turn to help our children now.”
The goal will also include $30 million to begin construction of two new Catholic high schools in Royersford and Hilltown. While there have been closures of Catholic schools closer to the center of Philadelphia, there has been an explosion of Catholic population in Montgomery County and in West Chester.
“Up until the ‘80s, much of the population lived in Philadelphia County,” said Bishop McFadden. “Both the new schools have been situated in such a way that we’ll be able to have Catholic secondary education in all areas of the diocese. In doing that we will be consolidating several high schools.”
The campaign has earmarked $25 million to maintain the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, a landmark on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The structure is made of sandstone, and has suffered deterioration and water damage in recent years.
The St. Charles Borromeo Seminary will get about $20 million for repairs and for educational purposes. The seminary used to serve only the Philadelphia area, but now serves as the seminary for 31 other dioceses around the country.
The archdiocese also hopes to set up an endowment for sick and aging priests, many of whom live in a small villa constructed in the 1940s at a local parish. The building is only very basic, and is not wheelchair accessible.
The campaign would also provide $10 million for Catholic Social Services to upgrade its feeding programs and facilities to care for the elderly and neglected.
“We’ve had great success so far, despite the fact that it’s the worst time to ask for money,” said Bishop McFadden. “We have found when we explain the case, people understand that this is about strength in the Church going forward. It’s about needs, not luxuries.”
Dr. Martino pointed out “Heritage of Faith, Vision of Hope” is an historic campaign and has utilized many resources from the laity to address its direction.
“I think [the campaign] was very wisely done,” said Dr. Martino. “The whole campaign has the element of sound good reason and management. There are two elements at work here. One is the breadth of the lay involvement with the campaign, and the other is the quality of the leadership. This is a good example from the Cardinal of lay leadership in the Church. There are many lay leaders representing a number of various professions involved. That’s led to a considered balance of combined experience and wisdom. I would say this is our archdiocese at its best.”
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