“I’m not asking for huge gifts from anybody, but I am asking for lots of gifts from lots of people. And the next thing I’m asking is for your prayers,” Archbishop Vigneron said before a capacity crowd at St. Fabian Church in Farmington Hills.
The parish is one of 67 included in fourth of the five waves in which the capital campaign has proceeded.
The archbishop called Changing Lives Together an “act of faith, an act of love, and an act of hope.”
The $135 million campaign is designed to strengthen the parishes of the Archdiocese of Detroit, with 70 percent of the money pledged to meet each parish’s target staying with the parish for its own projects or purposes, and the other 30 percent going to the archdiocese.
Those parishes that exceed their set targets, however, get to keep 100 percent of the funds collected after that.
But Changing Lives Together is also an expression of “our sense of being together, our being together as a community of faith,” Archbishop Vigneron told those gathered for the kick-off. While parishioners are encouraged to be loyal to their parish, “we, as Catholics, know that we are a part of something bigger,” he said.
The archbishop said the archdiocesan share of proceeds would go to:
- Continuing to strengthen the support given to Catholic education that began under Cardinal Adam Maida by adding $15 million to the endowment established through the Stewards for Tomorrow campaign of the mid-1990s.
- Devoting $8 million to the support of seminarians in formation for the priesthood and lay students studying for various Church ministries at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
- Also, $4 million to maintain the witness of the Catholic Church in the city of Detroit, where struggling parishes are not able to bear the full cost from their own resources.
St. Fabian Parish will hold its “commitment weekend,” at which parishioners will be asked to make their pledges to meet the parish’s goal, Oct. 27-28.
The goal set for St. Fabian by the archdiocese is $1.39 million, but the parish has set its own goal of $1.9 million. Under the Changing Lives Together formula, meeting its goal would bring in $1.483 million for the parish (70 percent of $1.39 million plus 100 percent of $510,000).
And what’s more, that figure would be exempt from the cathedraticum, the 7 percent “tax” the archdiocese assesses on most contributions given to parishes for its own various ministries.
Fr. Jeffrey Day, pastor of St. Fabian, said the parish intends to use its portion of campaign proceeds to expand its vestibule into a larger meeting space, remodel the church’s sanctuary and upgrade technology on its campus, giving its facilities wireless Internet and streaming capabilities.
St. Fabian is not the only parish hoping to exceed its official goal. Bill Blaul, communications coordinator for the campaign, cited the example of Our Lady of Albanians Parish in Southfield, a Wave 2 parish that has received pledges of $190,140, though its official goal was just $53,700.
For more information on Changing Lives Together, visit www.aodclt.org.
