A Very Generous Offer and A Significant Challenge

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! Last week, I presented to the parish our financial situation through the first six months of our fiscal year, the period ending January 31, 2009. As I mentioned, we are a bit behind this year because of two factors. The first is the cost (some of it anticipated, some not) of two very large and very successful events held on campus: the Open-Air Mass on Norlin Quadrangle and the “Great Debate” featuring Dinesh D’Souza and Christopher Hitchens on the place of God and religion in the world. These events were part of our Centennial Celebration of Campus Ministry at the University of Colorado and were more than worth the expense incurred. They have radically increased our visibility and significance on campus: through them we have been able to reach far more students with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have had many “doors,” on campus and among benefactors, opened to us. We should be very proud of these events. The second factor is that our offertory and development efforts fell behind budget at Christmas time. I still have great confidence that we will reach our goals this year and meet all of our expenses. It will require, however, generosity on our part and on the part of all of our benefactors.

Towards all of this, I have great news! Two very generous donors have offered to “match” dollar for dollar our Sunday collection on the weekend of March 14th and 15th, up to $25,000, as a gift to our campus ministry program. Our normal collection on that weekend is approximately $15,000. It will take some doing to get to the goal of $25,000, but it is a challenge that I think we can meet!

I can’t tell you how important this will be, if we can get full participation from the community, for strengthening the Sunday offertory and helping campus ministry in its efforts at growth and excellence. We will be much closer to reaching our goals for this year and in the future.

Please consider making an extraordinary gift to the offertory on that weekend through cash, check, credit card or filling out an Electronic Funds Transfer pledge card (the first 6 months will be counted toward the challenge). Greater participation in our automatic giving program will also help us with steady income and easier planning far into the future. If you have not done so before, please consider signing up for this program.

The ushers will be passing out cards stating the challenge this weekend at all the Masses and will do the same on the weekend of the collection. If you wish to use your credit card, please use the back of these cards for your name, address, phone number, email address, credit card number and expiration date and simply drop them in the collection. The cards for our EFT program are located in your pew pockets and in the vestibule. Once they have been filled out, they can be dropped in the collection. Participation in this challenge will be possible through Monday evening March 16, and we will announce the results on the website, in the bulletin and from the pulpit the next weekend.
This is a wonderful opportunity and challenge for us. It should make us grateful for our unique mission at the University of Colorado and grateful that so many people care deeply about its success. I trust that you will join me in gratitude and prayers for all of our benefactors, both those who attend here regularly and those who, while belonging to other parishes, are invested in the future of the Catholic Faith at the University of Colorado. Please be as generous as you can for the sake of our parish and campus ministry programs.