This weekend, we will speak about this year's Bishop's Annual Appeal. Many of you who have donated to this appeal in past years have already donated to this year's appeal. Thank you for your wonderful generosity!
Just for your information, and in keeping with our practce of being transparent, our parish's goal was raised by the Bishop's Development Office by over $2000 this year. This raise, despite our committment to not hiring any new staff positions, has been imposed on us with no input from our parish community.
Also, we have heard absolutely nothing from the Office of Catholic Education about the future of our parish's involvement in Pope John XXIII regional Catholic Grade school in Deal. As of this date, we have absolutely no idea how much money the diocese is asking us to donate toward the future of this school. While we all want to be supportive of the wonderful students and teachers at the school, the Diocesan Office of Catholic Education has been absolutely mute on this area.
It's our time to be Church, as the Bishop says in his video from the Appeal.
And so, I'm asking all of the 2000 families of our St. Anselm Parish, for a one-time gift of $25 to the Bishop's Annual Appeal for 2009. That will put us over our goal, and a percentage will come back to St. Anselm's too! With the left-over funds, we can reach out to our own parishioners, to our friends in Asbury Park and Long Branch, to the hungry and homeless who come to us for help.
It's a fact of life that the Bishop's Annual Appeal is given to us once a year. I promise you, that this is the one and only time of this year that I will speak to you about this issue. I pray that God will continue to bless you and your family for your wonderful generosity to St. Anselm, and to our local efforts to reach out to the poor and the marginal!
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