BLOOMFIELD – Three slices of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal pie will be highlighted during the 2010 campaign, according to appeal director Stephen T. Kimmons.
"The appeal will focus on the Emergency Assistance Fund, the Vocation Office and the Tuition Assistance Fund," he said.
Colleen Boccaccio Corriveau, director of the archdiocesan Office of Stewardship, said that each year Archbishop Henry J. Mansell chooses areas he wants to emphasize during the appeal campaign. The appeal annually provides funding for charitable, educational and spiritual ministries as well as for special programs that are important to the welfare of the Archdiocese.
The Emergency Assistance Fund is a new initiative Archbishop Mansell introduced in March 2009 and is administered through Catholic Charities. It works on the parish level. People who need help with rent or mortgage payments, prescriptions, health care and utilities may contact a local parish priest, who submits the request to Catholic Charities.
In its first 11 weeks, the initiative generated 153 requests in 80 parishes, according to Rose Alma Senatore, president and CEO of Catholic Charities. As of Sept. 1, more than 350 referrals had been made from 111 parishes, and $178,000 had been allocated to parishioners, she said.
Those numbers have shot up in the past five or six months. As of mid-February, about 500 people have been referred to Catholic Charities from 120 parishes, and about 400 of those people have been helped through the Emergency Assistance Fund, Ms. Senatore said.
"Most of the requests are for utilities, mortgage payments, rental assistance, car repairs [for commuting to jobs] and medical bills," she said.
During the first full year, the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal allocated $350,000 to Catholic Charities to administer the Emergency Assistance Fund, she said.
Mr. Kimmons said that the Vocation Office has 42 seminarians currently, and 52 more are "in the pipeline."
There were 30 $500 scholarships distributed in 2008 through the Tuition Assistance program, according to information Mr. Kimmons received from the Office of Catholic Schools, which administers the program. Another 30 scholarships are anticipated for the current school year.
During the 2009 appeal campaign, the Emergency Assistance Fund and other human services were allocated about 6 percent of appeal money. The Tuition Assistance program also was allocated about 6 percent. Seminarians, priests and deacons, including the Vocation Office, received about 17 percent, according to the archdiocesan Web site, www.archdioceseofhartford.org.
Mr. Kimmons said that the fact that three areas are being highlighted does not necessarily mean their allocations will increase.
The goal for 2010 will be $8.5 million, which is the same as the 2009 goal. Each year, the goals have been exceeded, he said.
Mrs. Corriveau pointed out that the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal got an unexpected bit of publicity in the form of an Oct. 4 article in The New York Times (Julie Bosman, "Scattered in Suburbs, and in Need"). The article focused on several Connecticut agencies that assist people in need. Among them were three archdiocesan agencies that receive funding from the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal: Catholic Charities of Hartford; and the Beth-El Center and the Bridges Treatment Center, both of Milford.
Mrs. Corriveau said that vicariate outreach programs such as those mentioned in the Times article are especially valuable to people in the suburbs. "People in the suburbs have a harder time getting help than people in cities," she said, because typically agencies are located in cities.
The raised funds support Catholic education and faith formation; communications; community development and human services; seminarians, priests and deacons; pastoral ministries and parishes in need; and other charitable outreach.
