Diocesan
Appeal Q. & A.’s
Q. Why, after all these
years, has the diocese chosen to implement an annual appeal?
A. The reason for an annual
Diocesan Ministry Appeal (DMA) is to raise needed funds to provide ministries
for the people of the diocese that local parishes are not able to do, and that
up to this point in time, the diocese had not been able to do either.
Q. What ministries in the
diocese will benefit from the 2006 Diocesan Ministries Appeal?
A. There are four important
ministries that the Diocesan Ministries Appeal will benefit:
1. Seminarians – The cost of
preparing a young man for the priesthood today exceeds $150,000.
2. Deacons and Lay Ministers – There is a great
need to provide the declining number of priests with some assistance. The
diaconate program that will begin in the diocese after the success of the appeal, will form and train up to 25 men in the diocese as
deacons. This isn’t going to solve the
problem of the shortage of priests, but it will greatly help to reduce the
workload of some of our priests. Costs to implement that 5 year program are
estimated at $75,000 per year and the initial year at $90,000.
3. Youth and Children – Youth
and children are the future of our Church. Your gift will provide training for
catechists and religion teachers as well as support for local programs. The
lack of a Catholic college in our midst, means that we
must bring experts into our diocese from greater distances and time
requirements raising the costs to do this work.
4. People in Need – Your
support will help develop Catholic Charities services in our diocese. Leaders
at the diocesan level are in contact with our neighboring Diocese of Winona and
Q. What is the financial goal
of
this appeal and how will it be broken down into each of
these
ministry areas?
A. The goal of the 2006
Diocesan Ministries Appeal is $600,000.
$500,000 will roughly be split between the four mentioned
ministries. $100,000 will be returned to
the parishes as subsidy.
Q. How were the DMA’s parish
goals established?
A. The goals were based on a
formula using the number of people who give $50 or more to their parishes. The
total goal of the appeal ($600,000) is divided by the number of $50 givers in
the diocese (17,170). The resulting
number (approximately $34.95) is multiplied by the number of $50 givers in the
parish. It’s a formula used by several
of our neighboring dioceses as well.
Q. What happens when a parish exceeds
its goal?
A. All monies exceeding the
parish goal will be returned to the parish to be used for the identified parish
goal.
Q. Who is doing the
bookkeeping and reporting of the Diocesan Ministries Appeal?
A. The diocesan Finance
Office will handle all the recordkeeping for the appeal. Once the DMA
officially begins on November 18 and 19, the diocesan Web site (www.dnu.org)
will feature a weekly update of the progress of the DMA by parish.
Q. What are ways that an
individual can contribute to the appeal?
A. Cash, checks, pledges,
stocks, commodities, credit card and electronic transfers are all ways to
contribute to the DMA. The diocesan Finance Office has worked to make
contributing to the appeal as convenient as possible.
For additional questions,
please contact Wayne Pelzel, Director, Office of
Development,
email: wpelzel@dnu.org.cesan
Appeal Q. & A’s