July 16, 2010
CPC update shows strong commitment
A chart of the 2010 Catholic Parish Campaign. Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Pledges for the current Catholic Parishes Campaign have topped last year’s results, as of July 1, according to information prepared for the June meeting of the diocesan presbyterate.
Pledges exceed last year’s total by $46,000, according to Tim McGuire, chief operating officer of the Diocese of Evansville.
The CPC assessment for this year, Fiscal Year 2010-2011, is $5,180,825. That total represents an increase of $17,956 or about one-third of one percent (0.35 percent) over the previous year. The assessment for 2009-1010 was $5,162,869.
The annual assessment is determined over a nearly year-long process of examining the needs of the Catholic Commu-nity as a diocese to do what a parish cannot do on its own — operating the tribunal, providing the services of Catholic Charities, paying for seminarian education, to name a few such items.
The total needed is then assessed to the parishes on a formula that is based on the number of contributors in the parish who annually give $50 or more to support the parish. Most parishes seek to raise the amount assessed by using the Catholic Parishes Campaign.
Three parishes in the diocese do not use the CPC method. St. Benedict Cathedral and St. Mary Church in Evansville, along with Our Lady of Hope in Washington, pay the assessment from parish revenues.
All parishes pay their assessed amounts, whether the CPC contributions cover the assessment or not. If the contributions are less than the assessment, the parish has to make up the difference. If the CPC contributions are more than the diocesan assessment, the parish keeps the additional funds.
In the last half-dozen years, contributors paid between 82 and 90 percent of the assessment goal. For 2010-2011, the amount paid or pledged was 87 percent of the goal (as of July 1).
As of July 1, 16,196 contributors had made pledges. Of that total, 6,641 (41 percent) pledged more this year than last year.
Of the overall total, 7,288 persons (45 percent) pledged the same amount as last year, while 2,267 (14 percent) pledged a smaller amount than last year.
McGuire noted that the 2010 CPC Commitment Sunday was one week later than it was in the previous year. To date, 24 parishes have reached or exceeded their goals.