DDD annual dinner celebrates successful 2014; announces next year's theme

Friday, Oct. 31, 2014

DRAPER — ‘Go Forth,’ the theme of the 2015 annual Diocesan Development Drive, was announced at the DDD dinner celebration held at Saint John the Baptist School Oct. 24. 

The DDD is an annual appeal to the people of the diocese; the funds pay 30 ministries, programs and services that range from religious education to vocations, from youth and young adult ministry to hospital ministry, from marriage and family life to Hispanic ministry.

John Kaloudis, the Diocese of Salt Lake City stewardship and development director, welcomed guests to the dinner, saying the anchor and stabilizing force in one’s life is Jesus Christ. “What the people of the Diocese of Salt Lake City have done for the DDD has value; their support is important in preserving and expanding the work of the Church,” he said, adding his gratitude on behalf of the diocese for the efforts and service of the people.

From 2013 to 2014, more than 8,000 donors pledged $2 million; $1.8 million pledges have already been paid, Kaloudis said. “Thirty-eight percent of the funding is used for services, 34 percent for ministries, 24 percent for programs and 4 percent for parishes and missions.” 

This year the DDD will focus on two areas: the social service ministries of the Church, to reach out to the neediest people of the Church; and to the seminarians, Kaloudis said. “We have seven seminarians, and it costs about $280,000 a year to support them, and we want to increase the number of vocations that we have,” he said.

Kaloudis then thanked the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City for “embracing and welcoming me to the diocese.” 

Kaloudis began working for the diocese in September.

In Bishop Wester’s comments, he recalled Pope John XXIII and the Vatican II Council, and how the council took the doctrines of truths and developed them to give the Church a new way of thinking about them. 

For example, the Church once saw its ecclesiology in a pyramid with the pope at the top, followed by the bishops, priests, religious, lay leaders and down to the people, the bishop said. “Vatican II took that pyramid and turned it upside down, with the pope at the bottom serving the bishops, priests, deacons, religious, lay leaders and people of God at the top; looking through the lens of service, with the Holy Spirit working in all of us.” 

Through baptism, each person is filled with the Holy Spirit, completely and intimately one with Jesus Christ in his Paschal mystery; his suffering, death, and resurrection, the bishop said. 

“You are the Church and the ones who make the Church happen,” Bishop Wester said, adding that at the recent Diocese of Salt Lake priests’ convocation he told them that their ordination is a great gift, but it doesn’t supersede their baptism. “Our baptism is the single, most important thing in our lives,” he said.

As the body of Christ, “we gather as a family, and from time to time we have to talk about finances and make sure we are planning and doing the right thing so our family will be all right,” Bishop Wester said. “But we never lose focus … What we really enforce is the love, the mercy, compassion and bonding that takes place between us as God’s holy people. Tonight we are taking time out to thank you for the work you do; we need you and what you do to keep that vision alive. You, my brothers and sisters, do so much for these wonderful programs that reflect who we are, and I thank you for all you do.”