Dear Parish Family,
I would first like to thank everyone for their,continual generosity to St. Mary, Mother of God and making this your parish home. Your financial generosity makes it possible for St. Mary’s to be a place to gather to express your faith in worship, to grow in your faith through learning, and to share your faith in fellowship. In this we experience our faith on a local level, but we are a part of a larger and universal Church. Our parish of St. Mary’s is a part of the local Church of Charlotte that is the Diocese of Charlotte, with the Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, JCD as our Bishop. The fifth precept of the Church is, “You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church. “The fifth precept means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.” Financial contributions are the most common means by which the faithful provide for the needs of the Church. The financial and material contributions enable the church to fulfill her obligation to perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy ordered toward all mankind, not just Catholics. Each year there are two ways that St. Mary’s is required to support our local Church of Charlotte through annual assessments for the annual Diocesan Support Appeal which supports many of the wonderful charities which the Diocese performs each year. The second assessment is for the Priest Retirement Fund.
The DSA has several prominent aspects which we benefit our parish directly.
- College Campus Ministry which supports the wonderful and thriving campus ministry at WCU and Deacon Matthew Newsome’s salary.
- Faith Formation, through ongoing catechist training and conferences.
- Hispanic, ministry in our area is greatly supported especially by supporting Fr. Julio Dominguez and his ministry in the area as Vicar of Hispanic Ministry for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate. Fr. Julio is growing the participation of the Hispanic Faithful by leaps and bounds including in our own parish of St. Mary’s.
This year our DSA assessment was $17,971.00, and currently we have paid $12,800.21 with $970 in outstanding pledges leaving what we have left to pay to the Diocese as $4,200.79.
With the DSA, whatever we exceed comes back to St. Mary’s for us to use according to our needs. Last year we had an excess over $3000 which went to help pay for our new HVAC unit in the West wing/transcept of the church (Cry Room Side).
What the parish contributes into the weekly collection goes to pay my annual priest salary, and then what the parish contributes to the annual priest retirement fund goes to support the priests when we retire and are no longer assigned to a parish.
This year our priest retirement assessment is $5,614.00 and we have collected and will have paid out thus far $2,776.40 leaving $2,837.60.
If we go over our assessment goal in contributions they stay with the priest retirement fund. The excess contributions do not return to St. Mary’s unfortunately.
Please take time to prayerfully consider assisting with our current shortfalls and supporting our parish and our Church.
Sincerely in Christ Jesus through Mary,
Fr. Casey Coleman