You be the judge! (Part 2 of 2)

By Mila Glodava

St. Thomas More's second pastor, The Rev. Michael A. Walsh, introduced stewardship in the Fall of 1989. Parishioners were immediately suspicious that it was simply a gimmick to collect money. They've heard it before from Father Fred McCallin, but the word he used was "tithing," using the Rev. Abbot Edward Volmer's sacrificial giving program. By the time Father Fred left, the offertory collection was at $1.2 million. After Father Walsh succeeded him, the offertory collection went down. To avoid making it a trend, he introduced stewardship to the parish and hired a director, who resigned shortly after the 1989 campaign. Because I was helping him in the educational area of stewardship, Father Walsh decided to turn over the entire responsibility to me.

I must admit, my efforts then, were directed towards Father Walsh's goal of increasing the offertory collection and not necessarily converting people to a new way of life. In fact, I did not practice stewardship at the time, so how could I even think of converting others to something I didn't do. In my mind, I was simply a fundraiser, and a novice at that. Still, I could not understand the negative comments Father Walsh received: "How dare you ask me for 10 percent of my income?" Or, "My giving is between me and God" and "It's none of your business how much I give to God."

These same sentiments have not changed much since Father Fred's time. In three letters he sent parishioners in November 1985, Father Fred recognized the fact that some would rationalize their "way out of giving money to the Church." Such cynics, he said, would say, "I come to Church to talk to God." His response, "I have a news flash, you need not come to church to talk to God; you can talk to Him anywhere." Father Fred also said, "Giving sacrificially and unconditionally is giving your best to God. Give the best that you are, and have faith, that's as real as it gets." Further, he said, "Giving has never been an easy thing, but that is what makes it great. A great thing is never easy to do." In his letters, he also reminded parishioners that he talked about money only once a year on three successive weekends, and that there were only a couple of second collections during the year-St. Vincent de Paul, Little Sisters of the Poor, Mission Appeal and Archbishop's Catholic Appeal.

Father Fred's teaching included "trusting in God and being free of fear and that God's rewards will be beyond your fondest dreams." Indeed, Father Fred's teaching about money was as "real as it gets." In fact, his tithing program was no different from our current stewardship teaching, which, some say, he probably would have approved if he continued as pastor to this day.

Yes, we do talk about money on three different occasions annually-during the Archbishop's Catholic Appeal and Stewardship of Treasure weekends and the Mission Appeal. The latter, however, is simply to thank the parish for a grant approved in advance by the Stewardship Committee, along with 15 other archdiocesan mandated collections. Since Father Andrew came to St. Thomas More, all mandated collections come from the parish "tithe of the tithe."  Thus, we have no second collections, nor any holy day collection except Christmas.

Certainly, the years 2006 and 2007 are an exception because of the three-year building fund campaign.  Please note, the other two pastors also had capital campaigns: 1) the Church and Youth Center under Father Fred and 2) the Evangelization Center and Parish School under Father Walsh. Actually, the latter two were my first capital fund campaigns at St. Thomas More.

Published financial reports show that the tithing and stewardship programs have worked and continue to work. As mentioned earlier, when Father Fred left, the offertory was at $1.2 million; when Father Walsh left, the offertory was at $3 million; and now during Father Andrew's pastorship, the annual offertory collection has increased $4.5 million. The size of our congregation has also increased to more than 6200 families.

Even our children and youth are learning early in life to give of their time, talent and treasure. In 2000 we recorded 144 envelopes from children giving a total of $1,343. In 2006, we recorded 917 gifts for a total of $21,281, all of which go to charities of their choice. Occasionally, we publish some of the time and talent the children give to God. I often hear many comments on what a beautiful sight to behold at Mass when the young ones come forward to the altar to offer their gifts to God. People from other parishes who have attended our workshops on stewardship have adopted this practice.

Still, there are those who are not convinced.  Some say that the increases would have happened anyway, because salaries have gone up during those years. Others say that parishioners would give, because of outstanding programs and beautiful liturgy; or because the clergy give great homilies. Fair enough. If these ideas were true, however, many parishes won't be hurting for money, and the Catholic Church won't be losing the $2 billion per year it is not receiving, according to social scientists studying trends in giving. Many parishes also complain that they seem to have the same volunteers serving in the same ministries for years. With more than 8,500 parishioners involved in ministries, I can't really say, that's true at St. Thomas More.

Over the years we have developed our stewardship program so that it has become, or is becoming a way of life in the parish, especially since June 2000 when Father Andrew became pastor. The St. Thomas More model has evolved into a six-phase program-prayer/time, ministry/talent, faith, treasure, vocations and earth-focusing on stewardship as spirituality and a life of thanksgiving for God's blessings. Thus, we promote making time for God in prayer, sharing our gifts and talents, nourishing our faith, giving of our treasure, promoting vocations, and preserving the earth. I hope you understand that at St. Thomas More, money or treasure is only one of six areas of stewardship.  I also hope that you see and experience the fruits of stewardship as a way of life at St. Thomas More, and that is evangelization, "to go and make disciples." Yes, stewardship is only a means to an end-evangelization.

Stewardship is a response to Jesus' call for us to be his disciple. As the U.S. Catholic bishops said in their pastoral letter in 1992, Stewardship: A Disciples Response, "the authentic practice of stewardship inevitably leads to evangelization"-the essential mission of the Church.

Please click here to see Money: is this all we talk about? You be the judge! Part 1