Dear Friends,
It’s another Sunday in the time of COVID, and again, it feels strange. This unsettling pandemic has altered every aspect of our daily lives — including how we practice our faith. At the same time, it has greatly impacted our local Church.
On behalf of our Catholic community, I’m asking for your help.
Pastors are scrambling to preserve payroll. Principals are working around the clock to maintain enrollment. Lay ministers are creatively adjusting ministries to ensure we’re fed spiritually. And nearly all parish and school employees, who’ve dedicated their lives to serving the mission of the Church, now fear furloughs and loss of pay or benefits.
The ingenuity that rapid adaptation requires is costly. And it comes at a time when our Archdiocesan parishes are experiencing coronavirus-related declines — 60 percent or more — in offertory giving and Catholic schools have been forced to postpone or cancel crucial spring fundraisers.
Your generosity is urgently needed.
In response to this crisis, and in partnership with Archbishop Hebda, the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) has created a fund to inspire community generosity and collaboration to provide urgent financial relief and stabilization to parishes and Catholic schools experiencing grave financial distress.
The result is the Minnesota Catholic Relief Fund (MCRF) — a coordinated community-wide philanthropic response to COVID-19.
CCF has made a significant lead grant to the fund and is administering the MCRF at no expense to parishes or schools. In short, CCF will not collect any revenue on the funds raised. In addition, we’re shifting our own assets — our human capital — to focus entirely on this important initiative. Financially supporting the needs of our Catholic community is the core of our mission. The needs are great, and the time is now.
First and foremost, Archbishop Hebda and CCF encourage continued regular tithing to your parish. If, beyond that, you’re able to give further, please consider contributing to the MCRF. You can send a check, use your donor advised fund, make a gift online, transfer stock, or use your required minimum distribution from your IRA.
We thank you for your prayers, for your commitment to our community of faith, and for your response to this call to action. Please consider making a generous gift to the MCRF.
Should you have any questions, please reach out to me at millera@ccf-mn.org.
This crisis may be dire, but we know the ingenuity and generosity of this Catholic community are immense.
In hope and solidarity,
Anne Cullen Miller, MBA
President