Hearing and answering the appeal

The 2013 Annual Catholic Appeal of the Diocese of Helena is in the books and we can now look back and make a sober assessment of the response of St. Matthew’s Parish. Our parish managed to exceed the target dollar goal by a healthy margin as did a number of other parishes in the diocese. This is important as there will always be other parishes which are not able to meet their goals, as has been the case for St. Matthew’s in past years, and the essential services of the diocese rely upon these funds to continue operations. Let’s not neglect to offer prayers of thanksgiving for this generosity which is expressed as fruit of the Holy Spirit.

As I survey the returns of the parishes there is one thing that stands out for me. Most parishes did not come close to 100% participation. St. Matthew’s return of 48% was one of the best. And this seems to be typical from one year to the next. There are, no doubt, many reasons for this and it might be pointless and perhaps counterproductive to jump to any conclusions. However, there may be something gained by giving this some consideration.

As widely scattered as the parishes are throughout our diocese many parishioners do not seem to make the association with the cathedral in Helena and are simply unaware of all of the essential connections, financial and spiritual, that exist between the diocese and our parish. The role of the Bishop may even seem archaic to some. The result of this is that a Catholic parish begins to take on the likeness of a protestant congregation the more it becomes its own island, separated from its Bishop and its Pope. And that is not a good thing for the Church.

I don’t believe that it takes extraordinary know-how to correct this apparent lack of understanding. It begins at the steps of the church in the message given to our parishioners. The priests and the deacons (primarily the deacons) have to thoughtfully frame the conversation so that a more realistic image of the Church is given to the faithful. Our community needs to be able to see that it is not comprised solely of the parish family but that it extends upward to the diocese and to the Vatican and outward beyond the Church; that this is a basic tenet of our faith.

That, I think, accounts for about 20% of what is to be done. The balance of the work falls on the faithful. Just as we must pray and partake in the sacraments, we must also accept the personal responsibility to inform ourselves about the life of our Church. We must be at least as diligent in in this search for knowledge as we are as consumers in our day to day purchasing decisions. Let each of us make that determination and pray to grow daily in the understanding and wisdom that is our faith.