This time of Stewardship Renewal reminds us first that our God has done great things for us just as the past generations of members of our parish. God is the giver of all gifts, and He asks us to give our ‘first fruits’ in thanksgiving. Scripture reminds us this weekend that ‘faith without good works is dead.’ Jesus also reminds us that one who follows Him must: “deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.” The wisdom of stewardship is that it’s not a model for fundraising – it’s the way of living the Christian life.
The largest mission of Corpus Christi is our parish school. We believe that faith formation is the number one mission of the Church today for children AND their parents. The stewardship model of our school allows every family wishing to have a Catholic school education to receive it with minimal costs. But it can come at a cost to the overall mission and needs of the parish when school families and the entire parish is not practicing the Stewardship way of life or striving to tithe.
As I reminded everyone last weekend, every household is asked to tithe 10% of the income before taxes by giving 5% to the parish, 1% to the Archbishops Call to Share and 4% to other charities.
For the past two years we have been holding special school parent meetings to encourage them in the stewardship way of life and seek their guidance and help. Two years ago, we began with educating the parents that our primary mission as a parish is to bring everyone closer to Christ and His Catholic Church. We are not a school which is part of a parish, but rather a parish with a mission of a school. We reminded parents of the precepts of the Catholic Church and asked them to sign a yearly commitment to follow those precepts. We have reminded them of the task that everyone in the parish needs to believe in and follow the Stewardship way of life. Additionally, we sought their input as to how they, and everyone, in the parish can grow in their giving of the Three T’s – Time, Talent, and Treasure. This past year we were also upfront with school families about their own financial giving and how a large percentage are not contributing enough or at all and asked them to sacrifice other wants to do so. Everyone can tithe or move towards a tithe each year only if they are willing to sacrifice many of the worldly leisure and possessions.
Whereas a parish ideally should only subsidize 30% of the school budget, our parish is currently subsidizing 40%. This is not feasible for the future and must decrease due to the suffering of both new and long-established ministries along with increasing maintenance costs and other capital needs.
At the National Catholic Education Association, Lincoln Snyder said the stewardship approach works when a culture of giving is presented as a holistic part of Catholic life. “If it's viewed as a transactional relationship, it's going to fail,” he explained. “You need to do a ton of spiritual investment work to get everyone to commit to all of the ministries of the parish - time, talent, and treasure,” he said.
According to the International Catholic Stewardship Council, if a Catholic parish is successful in practicing the Stewardship way of life, 65-70% of the parish will be involved and giving in some fashion. Last year at Corpus Christi, slightly over 50% had recorded some sort of giving of time, talent, or treasure.
In this final year of evaluation and planning for the future of Corpus Christi Catholic School, we will look at all options. First and foremost, we will continue to encourage school families to model the Stewardship way of life through their sacrificial giving. But I also call on the entire parish to give sacrificially in support of Catholic family faith formation at Corpus Christi. The overall mission of a Catholic parish is far reaching, and we will continue to increase our focus in developing missionary disciples at Corpus Christi who believe that all is a gift from God by responding with a grateful “Yes” and by being good Stewards of all entrusted to us.
God Bless,
