Detroit — The annual Archbishop’s Gala, a formal fundraiser to benefit Sacred Heart Major Seminary, raised $930,000 on June 19, a record total for the 17-year-old event.

Also topping the previous record high were the number of participants who attended the benefit: 850 compared with last year’s high of 785.

The gala was held in the grand ballroom of Detroit’s Cobo Center, and this year’s theme was “An Artful Gala.” The event was moved to Cobo Center last year to accommodate the growing participation.

Funds raised from the Archbishop’s Gala directly support Sacred Heart’s mission of forming priests, deacons and lay leaders, said Edmundo Reyes, the seminary’s director of institutional advancement.

“The Archbishop’s Gala is not just about selling tickets or showing our supporters a good time,” Reyes told The Michigan Catholic. “In a real sense, the 800-plus gala attendees become ‘evangelists’ for the seminary” by supporting men and women in formation and spreading the word about the seminary’s mission.

Reyes said the gala, the seminary’s largest annual fundraiser, helps support the cost of maintaining the historic seminary, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as paying ongoing operational and building costs.

“It heats and lights the home for this past year of 124 seminarians being educated and formed for the Archdiocese of Detroit and for 11 dioceses and two religious communities (and provides three healthy meals per day for them, as well),” Reyes said. “This is the highest seminarian enrollment in the past four decades.”

The gala also supports the salaries of Sacred Heart’s educators and staff, “all of whom are dedicated to furthering the mission of the seminary: to ‘form leaders according to the heart of Jesus for the sake of the New Evangelization,’” he added.

One of those educators, Sr. Mary Finn, HVM, was honored during the gala for her 45 years of service to the seminary as a faculty member and pastoral formation director.