February
4 , 2006
Annual
Appeal
Appeal
Cards
If you didn’t receive the appeal card in the mail, you can pick
one up at the doors of the church or at the Parish Center. If you haven’t
given recently, can you give even a small gift? (We’ll take big
ones too!)
Actually since you're reading this online you can sign up to make a
pledge here!
Out
of Jail
A few weeks ago I wrote about Congressman King saying that I’m
not “getting locked up” if I give food to undocumented immigrants.
This past week myself, and a dozen of our staff members got a first-hand
tour of a jail cell at the Third Precinct. No, we didn’t get in
trouble. Rather we got a tour of what happens to a person who is apprehended
by the police. While most of our parishioners never have the experience
of being arrested, some times people are taken into police custody.
We wanted to know what the procedures involved so we can better help
families whose relatives are arrested.
Census
Continues
Of the approximate 6,000 families we usually send mail to, we’ve
received completed Census booklets from over 2,000. So we’ve got
a ways to go.
Is your booklet in?
CollegeStudents
If you know students who are away at college, let us know so we can
keep touch via e-mail.
Sign up here!
e-mail Father Ralph:
Read Father
Ralph's Christmas Homily for 2005
Past Columns:
Jan 22: Abandoned Nets
Jan 15: Everlasting Life
Jan 8: I'm not going to
jail..
Jan 1: Happy New Year
Dec 25: Christ
Will Come Again
Dec 18: Angel
Approaching
Dec11: Mary
For Us All
Dec 4:Smoothing
Rough Roads
More
Columns from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns from
2003
Columns from 2002
By
now you may have received a mailing from the diocese asking you to contribute
to this year’s Catholic Ministries Appeal. This is the annual fund
drive which provides the funds for Catholic Charities, and the various
pastoral offices that serve the people of our diocese, including Telecare,
the seminary, hospital chaplains.
Last year, parishioners of St.
Brigid’s (and I’m included in this) gave $74,960 to the appeal
and the parish received a rebate of $7,496 -- 10% of the donations that
were made. (We could have gotten 20% back if we had reached the goal of
$98,600.)
First I want to thank all those
who gave in last year’s appeal. I know that many lives were touched
throughout the diocese through the charitable and educational programs.
I know that we really needed the rebate to help us pay our bills. You
helped both our parish and the wider church.
Second, I’d like to appeal
to those who didn’t give and ask them to give a donation to the
appeal this year. By not reaching our goal, we failed to receive the fullest
rebate possible and I know that because quite a few other parishes didn’t
reach goal either, various programs in the diocese ended up laying off
staff and/or cutting programs due to lack of funding.
On the other hand, our school did
benefit from diocesan grants of $185,000 -- several times over what our
parishioners contributed. But as the diocesan funds shrink, grants are
likely to be lessened and our parish will need to make up the difference.
(In fact, this year’s grants are $155,000.)
Sometimes I still hear from people
who say they won’t give to the appeal because they disagree with
our bishop. In those cases, I urge people to write to our bishop with
their concerns. But the bishop doesn’t suffer from lack of funds
-- others do when services are cut and grants are reduced or eliminated,
and when rebates to the parishes are limited. So I’m asking you
to join me in making a contribution to this year’s appeal -- no
matter how large or small. In the end, this will help “at home”
and across Long Island.
