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Report on
pulpit appeal for Vocations Office
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
This past June, the Catholics of Northcentral Indiana were asked to
respond to a special pulpit appeal to reduce the budgetary short-fall
faced by our Vocations Office. The response has been magnificent. To
date contributions of $330,475.79 have been received. Thank you!
Hitting the target at budget time is not an easy exercise. In the case
of the Vocations Department, it is particularly challenging because the
Diocesan Finance Council (nine lay persons plus myself and my vicar
general) is never sure of the number of men who will be in seminary
formation during any given two-year Fruitful Harvest cycle.
During my tenure as bishop, we have had as few as three seminarians.
This fall, seven new men enrolled in the seminary. It was thought yet
another would enter the seminary, but he decided otherwise. Since school
began, one of the seven has left the program. The point is that two and
a half years ago when the Fruitful Harvest budget was put together we
did not know there would be a total of 20 seminarians in September 2006.
This uncertainty, with ever-increasing expenses, has resulted in a
Fruitful Harvest short-fall and explains the reasons the Diocesan
Finance Council urged a pulpit appeal to mitigate an obvious Vocations
Department deficit.
There are, of course, “fixed costs” connected with our Vocations
Department, which is headed by Father Brian Doerr: 4 percent of
department expenses between January 2005 and June 2006 (18 months) went
to pay Father Doerr’s salary; 2.6 percent was used to cover the expenses
of a lay staff. Conducting the pulpit appeal (there have been two now)
cost $14,229 (posters, mailings, envelopes, etc.) or 1.9 percent. The
vocations director travels a great deal, visiting seminaries and
recruiting candidates. Travel expenses represented 1.1 percent of the
department expenditures over the past 18 months. A total of 1.2 percent
of the expenses went for meals and meetings, .7 percent for payroll
taxes, and .3 percent for retirement benefits for the priest vocations
director. Miscellaneous expenses totaled 1.7 percent (items such as
postage, telephone, e-mail/Internet, speakers, and professional
subscriptions). In all, this added up to $102,341 or 13.312 percent of
the total cost of the Vocations Department over the 18-month period.
In examining funds expended for the formation of men for the priesthood,
it is important to note that during the 18-month period (January 2005
through June 2006), we had a maximum of 17 seminarians. Two were
ordained this past June and one left the program.
During that 18-month time frame, 62.025 percent of Vocations Office
expenditures went to the payment of seminary board, room and tuition:
$476,849. A monthly stipend was given to each seminarian to help them
meet uncovered out-of-pocket expenses ($47,600). When seminarians are
placed in a parish during their summer break, that expense is covered by
the Vocations Department rather than by the parish to which they are
assigned. In the 18-month period it amounted to $46,000. Health
insurance is an ever-increasing cost. It came to $36,784. Seminarians
are required to purchase textbooks for their classes, of course. These
have become extremely expensive over the years. The diocese provides a
stipend of $600 a year to help students meet this expense. It cost the
Vocations Department $20,211, but that does not cover the total cost to
students. The screening of potential candidates for the priesthood costs
money. There are also required retreats, and various and sundry
expenses. The cost for those items added another $39,021.
When all these expenses for the 18-month period are added up, they come
to $768,806. Meanwhile, Fruitful Harvest allocations to the Vocations
Office (from the 2004 campaign) totaled $465,492, a short-fall through
June of $303,314. (Note that at the end of June, six months remained in
the current Fruitful Harvest expense cycle.) So, the pulpit appeal
covered the deficit through June, but we will still have a deficit at
year’s end.
It is an expensive venture. Anyone with a child in college and those in
graduate school have appreciation of that.
The pulpit appeal lessens the pit in deficit spending that would have
been our fate without the appeal. You have heard the cry and responded
most generously. Thank you! Thank you!
It is, of course, possible for people to designate gifts to the
Vocations Department at any time throughout the year. Some make the
Vocations Department the beneficiary in their estate planning. One
family has committed to underwrite the educational expenses (room, board
and tuition) of one seminarian. If he remains in the program until
ordination, that will amount to a donation of approximately $100,000.
Anyone who wishes to pursue ways in which you can help is encouraged to
contact Pamelia Storms-Barrett, Director of the Pastoral Office for
Stewardship and Development, at P.O. Box 1687, Lafayette, IN 47902-1684;
phone: 765-742-7000. The ideal, of course, would be a trust fund of
sufficient corpus to assure the education of any man pursuing priesthood
independent of special pulpit appeals and Fruitful Harvest. |
