Newspaper Page Text
Newspaper Of The Diocese Of Savannah
Vol. 65 No. 36 Thursday, October 17, 1985
$10 Per Year
Confraternity Of The Laity
Appeal Makes Many Forms Of Service Possible
BY GILLIAN BROWN
In some places it is called the “Bishop’s
Appeal.’’ In some it is the Diocesan Fund.
The Diocese of Savannah knows it as the
“Confraternity of the Laity Drive,”
scheduled this year for October 27.
They all add up to one thing: the yearly-
special collection which makes possible
the many services a Catholic Diocese of
fers to the people.
Any Diocese has to have an annual
source of funding if it’s going to provide
religious instruction, sacramental pro
grams, information, social services and
outreach to Catholics and to others in the
community.
To find out just what the
“Confraternity” drive will mean this year,
we talked to Sr. Mary Laurent Duggan,
C.S.J., Chancery Administrator, who has
been closely involved with the Drive each
year since she took up her position at the
Chancery seven years ago.
This year’s goal, Sr. Laurent explained,
is $440,000.00. This sum by no means
represents the entire amount which will be
spent on services. In the budgetary pro
cess, $648,000.00 has been allocated to
cover the wide range of programs and ser
vices offered by the Diocese.
How do we make up for the shortfall?
“We make sound investments, and we
beg from agencies outside the Diocese,
like the American Board of Catholic Mis
sions, the Catholic Church Extension
Society, and the Commission for Black and
Native Americans.”
“In the budgetary process you just have
to see how much you are going to have to
generate from various sources. We ask for
what we need, and hope it will
materialize,” Sr. Laurent said.
“Our goal is set according to the needs,
with a certain percentage allowed in addi
tion to match the expected rise in the cost
of living.”
“A quota is worked out for each parish,
based on ten per cent of the previous
year’s offertory collection.”
“If a parish sees its collections go up, the
quota goes up too, and if they go down the
quota is less.”
Sr. Mary Laurent Duggan, C.S.J.
Parishes going over their quota are
allowed to keep the excess, Sr. Laurent ex
plained. There are advantages and disad
vantages to this plan. On the one hand,
there is a limit to the Confraternity Drive,
impeding growth beyond a specified
Bishop's
Confraternity
Letter
On Page 4
amount. On the other hand, the hope of
keeping the excess gives each parish a cer
tain incentive in working hard to raise its
funds.
In the past, volunteers went door to door
to collect the Confraternity pledges. To
day, most parishes use the mail, or other
methods, such as solicitation after Mass to
reach the people.
Each year, the goal is met, Sr. Laurent
said. Most parishes raise their quotas
without difficulty, but some are unable to
make the parish goal and have to make up
the difference from other funds.
1985 will be a different kind of year as far
as the Confraternity Drive is concerned,
because of the on-going Cathedral Fund
Drive, launched last year to pay for major
repairs to the mother church, located in
Savannah. Several parishes went over the
goal set for the Cathedral, and their quota
for this Confraternity Drive has been
lowered proportionately.
In some ways, the Cathedral Drive —
running for three years — may make it
more difficult for Catholic families to
come up with the additional funds for Con
fraternity. But the strong support from the
people, and the appearance of many
Catholics from all over the Diocese at the
re-opening of the Cathedral, seem to offer
assurance of growing interest in the
Diocese and its many works. Those who
gather for a diocesan event — such as the
recent Education Institute or the for
thcoming Renewal Conference — are in
creasingly aware of the needs of the
Diocesan family, and have a strong sense
of community reaching beyond the im
mediate parish and local area. “These
events make us aware of the fact that the
Diocesan family extends throughout nine
ty counties,” Sr. Laurent noted.
Among the many programs offered by
the Diocese through the Confraternity
Drive are services to migrants, provision
of educational services and leadership
training, support for mission parishes,
spiritual renewal and adult education,
family life programs, information ser
vices, support of many mission parishes
and a subsidy to Camp Villa Marie.
Renewal Conference Opportunity For Quiet Time
The annual Spiritual Renewal Con
ference offers an opportunity for
something rare in today’s busy world - a
quiet time of reflection.
Sr. Mercedes Sullivan, R.S.M., Renewal
Director, Diocese of Savannah, sees the
Conference as enabling participants to
evaluate their progress on the journey to
“wholeness and holiness.”
“It is a time to come apart for a while,
and to enter into a deeper reflection on
what our gracious God desires to do in our
hearts,” Sr. Mercedes stated.
“The deepest desire of most hearts is to
grow - to be open to allow God to have his
way with us, so that we begin to reflect
God’s image in our lives. This is a
possibility for all.”
. “Looking to Jesus and at his life while he
was among us, we see as through a window
into the Father’s personality,” she notes,
quoting the Conference’s main speaker,
Father John Quigley. “Jesus is always
showing us what God is like. We cannot
read and pray the scriptures very long
without having to come to terms with the
realization that our God is uncompromised
compassion, and that he is inviting us to
the same. “Do this to remember me.”
A Franciscan priest who has studied the
Ignatian exercises of the Jesuits, Fr. John
conducts retreats and workshops in the
U.S. and Canada, and in other parts of the
world. He is Director of the Office of
Justice and Peace for his Franciscan Pro
vince, and the editor of a national peace
and justice publication, “Mustard Seed.”
His first talk, entitled “Where Can I Ex
pect to Find God?” will be one of four
developing the main theme of the Con
ference: “Jesus, The Journey Toward
Compassion.”
This first address, to be given at 8:15
p.m. on Friday evening, October 25, will be
followed by a “Talk and Prayer Ex
perience” led by Eddie Ensley and Robert
Herrmann, entitled ‘‘Experiencing
Christ’s Compassionate Healing.”
Eddie and Robert are members of a
small lay community called the Con
templative Brothers, in Columbus. Both
are frequent speakers at gatherings of this
kind in Georgia and in other parts of the
nation.
On Saturday morning, Father John will
give a general session entitled “What is
God Telling Us in Jesus?” at 9:15 a.m.,
followed by a third session, “Where Do We
Glimpse Jesus Today?”
In the afternoon, personal sharings on
the “Journey intoa Compassionate Heart”
will be given by Lora and Bill Shain, of
Sacred Heart, Warner Robins, Harold
McRae, of St. Anne’s, Columbus, and
Marie and Taylor Schoettle, from St.
Williams Parish, St. Simons Island.
Father John Quigley will conclude with a
talk on “Compassion as a Way of Life,” on
Saturday afternoon at 3:45 p.m.
The Conference will culminate in a clos
ing Concelebrated Liturgy at 5:00 p.m.,
with Bishop Raymond W. Lessard as prin
cipal Celebrant and homilist. As in past
years, many participants who congregate
in Macon for the Conference will seek ac-
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