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In these trying economic times the Archdiocese needs your support now more than ever because

• there are more and more poor and low income people who need housing and basic services;
• there are children who need tuition assistance so they can stay in Catholic schools;
• there are seminarians to be trained and educated for our parishes;
• there are hundreds of retired priests and women religious whose modest monthly pensions
  are threatened because of meager returns on pension plan investments.

In other words, the Church is experiencing the same economic hardships and challenges that so many of us are!
 
So, we must go ahead with the Annual Catholic Appeal and, with God’s help, we need to raise even more than we have in past years, because the goal set for us by the Archdiocese has gone up.  The Archdiocesan goal is $10 million, and of that the Archbishop has asked the Cathedral to raise $310,773.  In order for this to happen, the more financially able among us will need, if at all possible, to increase the amount of last year’s gift.  Only in this way will we be able to make up for those who are out of work or whose finances make participation in the Appeal this year an impossibility.

An important P.S.!  As in years past, everything given over and above the $310,773 goal given us by the Archdiocese will come back to us for our own parish needs.  This year we have greater need than ever of this rebate.  We need it to meet the considerable expenses that are involved in staffing our outreach ministries—in particular, one of our most important and most beloved Cathedral ministries, the Cathedral Kitchen. For 36 years now, our Kitchen has been serving meals to poor, and homeless, and low income people and families. While most of the food we serve is donated by local grocery stores, the Cathedral provides not only three paid staff people, but also the maintenance and upkeep of the kitchen and the vans.  This is not an insignificant item, as you might imagine, and that’s where this year’s Annual Catholic Appeal rebate will come in.

Information, Maria Laughlin, Director of Stewardship and Development, St. James Cathedral, 206-382-4284.

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