Responding to the Need

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The fall season brings to my calendar fundraisers for many local Catholic organizations. I went to three last week alone; several others are upcoming. This column is a shameless plug asking you, dear reader, to pull out your checkbook (or whatever the modern equivalent is) and donate however much you can to help the poor, the downtrodden, the hungry and the needy in our community. This is the call of our faith; Jesus tells us to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the ill and visit those in prison.

Although responding in a faith-filled manner to the call of the poor may help me get into heaven, I also donate to these causes because I want to help. This job allows me to see just how great the need is, and although I can’t do much by myself, if everyone who could actually did donate $25 or $50 or $100, the cumulative affect would be amazing, especially when added to the funds already given by donors who can afford to be more generous than I.

The following is a sampling of what the fundraisers I’m attending pay for; if none of these appeal to you, consider giving to or increasing your donation to the Diocesan Development Drive, which is the primary source of income for all the programs, ministries and services of the diocese. These include but are not limited to seminarian and clergy formation, and religious education for children and adults. If there is a specific need in the diocese you would like to contribute to, consider donating to one of the more than 400 endowments managed by the Catholic Foundation of Utah; these endowments address almost every need you can think of, from the homeless and poor to individual parishes and Catholic schools to the Carmelite nuns who live in Holladay.

The first fundraiser I went to last week was the Bishop’s Dinner, a benefit for the Cathedral of the Madeleine. The money raised at the dinner goes toward the maintenance and operation of the cathedral. “It keeps the building from falling down,” Fr. Martin Diaz, the cathedral rector, told me when I asked for an overall description of where the money went. On the operations side, the funding helps the lights stay on; the monthly electricity bill is $5,000, he said.

Two days after the Bishop’s Dinner I went to Empty Bowls, a fundraiser for the Saint Vincent de Paul dining hall, which provides more than 2,000 meals a day to people who are hungry, not only in downtown Salt Lake City but also to other homeless services providers in the area. That is a lot of food, but it only partially addresses the need: Statistics show that 1 in 6 children in Utah face hunger, and more than 102,000 families in this state are unable to buy enough food.

A different sort of need is met by Give Me a Chance, a ministry of the Daughters of Charity in Ogden. They provide classes to help low-income women become self-sufficient; they also offer an after-school program for children. The past two years’ Enchantment in the Summer Garden helped pay for heating and air conditioning in the building where the sewing classes are held; this year they are hoping to renovate their hall.

Among the upcoming fundraisers are the Carmelite Fair on Sunday, which is the primary source of income for the nuns who pray for us, the Church and all God’s people. Also next week is the Autumn Harvest event for Holy Cross Ministries, which serves the needs of underrepresented communities along the Wasatch Front.

As I already said, the need is great, so great that sometimes I get overwhelmed and wonder what good the paltry amount that I can donate can do. But then I recall the words of Mother Theresa: “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one,” and am encouraged to write that $25 check, because that might help someone who is hungry have a meal.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.