PARISHIONERS CONTINUE SUPPORT

OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Responding to the call of Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and the pastors/administrators of the 216 parishes in Brooklyn and Queens, parishioners contributed $2,906,007 to special diocesan and national collections taken at 12 weekend Masses, Good Friday and Christmas Day in 2006.

            The generosity of contributors reflected a long tradition in the Diocese of strong support of domestic and international charitable programs.

            Four of the collections benefited diocesan programs. The Retirement Fund for Senior Priests, also known as the St. John Vianney Charitable Trust, last Easter Sunday led the list, receiving $397,896. The Retirement Fund for Religious in June totaled $376,646, followed by the Catholic Charities collection on Christmas Day, $356,460, and the Catholic Education Fund, which received $176,734 in September.

            The Brooklyn and Queens parishioners supported nine national collections taken annually. The largest amount---$202,602--- was for works of mercy and aid for holy places in the Holy Land, received on Good Friday.

            In descending order based on the amounts contributed, the Holy Land collection was followed by the Latin America and Eastern Europe collection in January, $189,894; Catholic Relief Services in March, $177,229; Black and Native American Missions, also in March, $164,159; Peter’s Pence, for the charitable programs of Pope Benedict XVI, in July, $163,025; Catholic Home Missions in April, $161,945; Catholic Campaign for Human Development in November, $138,887; The Catholic University of America in September, $129,404 and the Catholic Communication Campaign in May, $121,440.

            A special collection was taken in late August to assist recovery efforts in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Diocese of Biloxi, a year after Hurricane Katrina. Parishioners contributed $149,686, with sixty percent earmarked for the Church in New Orleans and forty percent for the Biloxi.Diocese.

            In separate letters of thanks to the Diocese of Brooklyn, New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes described Katrina as “a human catastrophe of overwhelming proportions” and the Biloxi Diocese called the contributors in Brooklyn and Queens “magnificent, Christ-like people.”

            Immediately after Katrina struck in 2005, parishioners in Brooklyn and Queens contributed $1,201,125 toward hurricane relief.

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1/5/06