LINCOLN (SNR) – The 2022 Charity and Stewardship Appeal is beginning in parishes across the Diocese of Lincoln.
While the annual appeal supports the work of apostolates and organizations across the diocese, the bulk of the funds raised go directly to parishes and their local projects or operational support.
The Charity and Stewardship Appeal was established in 1971 by Bishop Glennon Flavin as the Diocesan Development Program. Under Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, the annual appeal was given a new name, but the Charity and Stewardship Appeal remained successful in supporting and expanding many diocesan programs and ministries. The appeal has provided for many of the needs of the diocese, especially Catholic education.
Under Bishop James Conley, the appeal continues to support numerous apostolates such as Catholic Social Services, Camp Kateri Tekakwitha, the Newman Center on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House, pro-life and youth ministries. It also assists hospital and nursing home ministry, prison ministry and retirement for religious sisters.
Each parish is assigned a target goal for supporting the appeal. Then parishes receive income back from their funds raised, based on three criteria: 40% of the parish goal is returned to parishes that support one Catholic school; 80% of the parish goal is returned to parishes that support two Catholic schools; and 100% of all funds raised above each parish goal are returned to the parish.
For Father Loras Grell, currently pastor of St. Mary Parish in Wymore, St. Mary in Odell and St. Joseph in Barneston, participation in the Charity and Stewardship Appeal is not only a way to support local parishes and diocesan ministries, but a great opportunity to talk about gifts from God and the Christian outlook on life.
“A great impact for me about CSA is that it gives me as pastor the courage, the permission, to talk about the importance of giving; how giving of our money is better for us than it is for the recipient,” he said. “Because of the pledge cards, because of the bishop’s letter, because of the video... I go to the pulpit confidently and speak to what I know is solid Catholic teaching, that is, that every penny we consider to be ours is only in our pocket or bank account because God has given us the ability to earn it.”
The theme chosen for the appeal this year, “As I have loved you,” comes from John 13:34: “As I have loved you, so you also love one another.” The artwork chosen to promote the appeal in posters and pledge cards is the Eucharistic Lord in a monstrance.
“There’s a beautiful way that our giving and stewardship is linked to our Eucharistic Lord,” Bishop James Conley explained in a promotional video about this year’s appeal.
He explained that, in the encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”), Pope Benedict XVI writes, “The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation.”
“So as we’re caught up in the self-gift of the Lord,” Bishop Conley continued, “then we desire to give everything back to Him: our time, our talent, our treasure; everything as an oblation in union with His Eucharistic love for us.”
For Father Grell, watching the work of the Church grow from each local parish is also powerful.
“I also love the impact of CSA for seeing the entire diocese as one Church under one shepherd, the bishop,” Father Grell said. “It is a concept we learned in seminary, that each diocese forms its own ‘particular Church,’ in the academic language.”
He remembered growing up in the diocese himself, watching his parents participate in the appeal.
“Etched in my memory is the image of my parents in the late 1970s going to the parish center at St. Joseph, Beatrice, to make their pledge,” he said. “I would stand right there as they made out the check and signed the pledge card. Because of this, for me, it’s not a question of ‘why give to the CSA’ but ‘why not?’”
With questions about the appeal, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 877-499-8554.
