Rochester Family of Parishes contributes $24K in relief to debt-burdened parishes

Detroit Catholic Parishes and Schools Trust's debt-matching program inspired by the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope

ROCHESTER — In the days of the ancient Israelites, it was customary to forgive debts to one another every 50 years.

The practice outlined in Leviticus called to mind all God had done for His people in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. Throughout salvation history, jubilee years were a time to forgive debts, restore community and draw closer to God.

During the 2025 Jubilee of Hope, the faithful in southeast Michigan have also been called upon to draw closer to God, in particular through visits to one of 12 pilgrimage sites in the Archdiocese of Detroit, where the faithful may obtain a plenary indulgence — remission of the temporal debt due to sin whose guilt has been forgiven in confession.

But while forgiveness of spiritual debt is the primary focus of the jubilee year, at least one local Family of Parishes is taking advantage of a special jubilee year program to help distressed parishes relieve monetary debt as well.

During the Jubilee Year of Hope, the Trustee of the Detroit Catholic Parishes and Schools (DCPS) Trust established a program to match debt payments made by parishes and schools holding loans in the trust.

"The Trustee decided to establish this debt-matching program in the spirit of the jubilee year, in order to help parishes and schools who have debt greater than 10 years old and do not have the ability to pay it off,” said Michael Schoenle, trust manager of the DCPS Trust, an Asset Protection Trust set up for the benefit of parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit. "Parishes and schools participating in the trust can make deposits or apply for loans. This program is helping them to relieve that burden."

As part of this program, all parishes and schools have the option to help other parishes and schools by making a donation to be applied to the debt-matching program. Those donations will be matched dollar for dollar, Schoenle said.

The Rochester Family of Parishes — which includes St. Andrew Parish in Rochester, St. Irenaeus Parish in Rochester Hills and St. Mary of the Hills Parish in Rochester Hills — offered $24,000 from the parishes’ interest accrued on their savings accounts from 2023 and 2024 for just such a purpose.

The $24,000, coupled with $24,000 matched by the DCPS Trust, allowed for $48,000 to be paid to reduce the debt of three parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

“We asked the archdiocese which parishes they thought could use some help, and they gave us some names,” Fr. Stan Ulman, moderator of the Rochester Family of Parishes, told Detroit Catholic. “So our Family of Parishes decided we would share half of our earned interest in our savings accounts to these parishes, and with the debt matching program, those gifts were doubled.”

The three parishes who received the funds asked Detroit Catholic not to be identified, but relayed that they were grateful for the gesture.

Fr. Ulman said he and the team of priests at the Rochester Family of Parishes made the decision in the spirit of the Jubilee of Hope and the long legacy of jubilees in which debts were forgiven.

“It’s all in the spirit of the jubilee year,” Fr. Ulman said. “When jubilee years were celebrated in the Old Testament, there was the forgiveness of debts, there was the freedom of slaves, and there was the return of property that was loaned to whoever originally had it. So in that spirit, we wanted to help those parishes in the archdiocese with that in honor of the jubilee year 2025.”

Fr. Ulman said he and the team of priests have received warm words of thanks from the parishes that were recipients of the gift.

The overall message of the gift, he said, is to reaffirm the unity of all parishes and parishioners as part of the tapestry that makes up the people of God in southeast Michigan.

“We’re part of a larger community; we’re not islands,” Fr. Ulman said. “We’re connected to a larger community, and this is just one way of showing that connection and identifying places where we know we can help.

“I know our parishioners across all three parishes in our Family of Parishes are very generous to all kinds of charitable organizations,” Fr. Ulman continued. “So they are proud to be part of this effort.”

So far, approximately 75% of the funds allocated for the jubilee debt-matching program have been applied, Schoenle said, and there is still time for parishes and schools to participate. At least three parishes have paid off debt as a result of the program.

Fr. Ulman hopes other parishes and Families of Parishes who are in a position to help will follow the Rochester Family of Parishes’ lead.

“I hope this inspires other parishes to do something like this,” Fr. Ulman said. “I know that in the past there have been efforts to try to connect parishes, suburban parishes with inner-city parishes. I want those efforts to continue. This is a fantastic way for parishes with the means to help parishes who need assistance.”