Friday, February 8, 2008

If only you could be everywhere

That's the theme of the 2008 Catholic Stewardship Appeal in our Archdiocese of Milwaukee. It continues the theme by asking "How far can you reach?" in a number of areas by giving. (Or is it giving? See this earlier post.)

One area is "Prayer, Worship and Liturgy". It cites Blessed Savior Catholic Church, formed by the merger of four Milwaukee parishes, as "A pioneer for the future." The statistics for the four constituent parishes were:
2005: 3,273 members, 1,266 Sunday Mass attendance
2006: 2,676 members, 1,144 Sunday Mass attendance
We'll have to wait for the next year's numbers to see what's being pioneered the rest of our parishes. The impression I've gotten from other parish consolidations is they generally mask decline rather than reverse it.

A donation of $1,000 or more makes one a member of the Campanile Society, symbolized by the campanile that stood at the Cousins Center. The campanile was dismantled in preparation for the sale of the Cousins Center forced by settlement of priest child molestation cases. So far, the Cousins Center remains unsold, and the campanile turned out to be too deteriorated to be rebuilt elsewhere (see Bells to toll in Eden, Milwaukee Catholic Herald, December 13, 2007). Still an apt symbol, but in a new way.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:30 AM

    ONLY in Milwaukee would they ask you to give $1,000. to be a member of a "society" that is symbolized by something that has fallen apart........LOL

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  2. It might work better if the campaign slogan were a less upbeat "Go repair my Church which you see is falling into ruins!"

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