Catholic Charities’ goal of $4.5 million within reach

For The Catholic Week

MOBILE – The 89th annual Catholic Charities Appeal Sunday was Jan. 26. As of Feb. 21, a total of 7,293 generous donors have participated with a financial pledge that helped us achieve 98.5% of our $4.5 million goal. The generosity of our archdiocese is inspirational. A detailed report of results by parish can be found above.

Inspired by St. Luke’s gospel, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” – Luke 6:36, the 2020 Catholic Charities Appeal theme is we are to be Merciful to those in need.

The ministries supported by the Catholic Charities Appeal serve the needs of the poor, the weak and those suffering mentally, physically and spiritually throughout the Archdiocese of Mobile. The services offered by these ministries are only possible because of your generosity to the Catholic Charities Appeal.

The basic pledge is $48 a month for 12 months or $576 a year. No gift is too small or too large. I am asking each of you to prayerfully consider making a pledge. If you are unable to give the basic pledge, please give what you can afford. I ask you to be generous and invite each of you who have not given before to please answer God’s Call to Give to the poor, the weak and the suffering among us.

Dedicated volunteers

The Catholic Charities Appeal would not be possible without the amazing team of dedicated volunteers. It all starts with the leadership team.

The Archdiocesan Chairs, Mr. and Mrs. Tim Mullek, toured the Archdiocese with Archbishop Rodi and myself delivering an inspirational key note to pastors and parish chairs prior to the appeal kickoff.

The four Deanery Chairs: Mrs. Jo Dunaway — Mobile, Teresa and Don Rhodes – Baldwin, Lynne and Cary Kuhlmann — Montgomery and Robert Amuso — Dothan, lead the meeting in their deanery with their own advice and inspiration as well.

These outstanding volunteers give up three Sunday evenings in a row to report results for their deanery. The Parish Chairs sacrifice countless hours to sort pledge envelopes and follow up with parishioners who have not yet made their pledge.

Thank you Parish Chairs for your dedication to Catholic Charities! District Chairs across the Archdiocese of Mobile are a critical piece of the reporting phone tree. They report a group of parish pledge totals to the Deanery Chairs three consecutive Sundays.

Finally, we are blessed with a hand full of exceptional volunteers who dedicate weeks of their time here in our office sorting, counting, recounting and preparing deposits so that your donations can get to the ministries that need them as quickly as possible.

These faithful volunteers show up day after day and donate their time until every pledge is deposited, entered and alphabetized.

The Development office is made up Laura Ball, Michelle Knizley and myself. We could not do this alone. We are so grateful for all these amazing volunteers!