Chicagoland

$350 million campaign will strengthen schools, religious education

By Joyce Duriga | Editor
Sunday, June 23, 2013

$350 million campaign will strengthen schools, religious education

Over the next three years, the Archdiocese of Chicago aims to fortify the future of Catholic education and faith formation by raising $350 million through its “To Teach Who Christ Is” campaign.
Cardinal George visits with Fabiola Avila and Natalie Nieves, 7th grade students at St. Stanislaus School in Chicago, after presenting the cardinal with some artwork they made following a press conference on June 5 at their school. (Karen Callaway / Catholic New World)
James Perry, chair of major gifts, addresses the media during the press conference. (Karen Callaway / Catholic New World)

Over the next three years, the Archdiocese of Chicago aims to fortify the future of Catholic education and faith formation by raising $350 million through its “To Teach Who Christ Is” campaign.

The campaign was announced during a press conference at St. Stanislaus Kostka School, 1255 N. Noble St., on June 5. This is the largest fundraising campaign undertaken by any diocese in the United States.

The campaign will generate financial support to archdiocesan Catholic schools, religious education for children and teens, adult faith formation and capital needs for parishes and schools. There are 90,000 children enrolled in Catholic schools in Cook and Lake counties and 90,000 children enrolled in parish religious education programs.

This campaign is structured in two parts: a major gift effort and a parish-based campaign. The major gift goal is $100 million, of which $82.5 million has been raised. The total goal for parishes is $250 million with 60 percent of the funds raised to remain in the individual parish for its needs and 40 percent to be distributed through the archdiocese.

“The campaign takes its title from a phrase in the Epistle of St. Paul,” Cardinal George explained at the press conference. “It’s the job of the church in every generation to introduce the world to its savior, ‘to teach who Christ is.’”

It’s integral to the mission of the church that it be involved in formation of its people on all levels, whether it be in schools, religious education or children or adults, the cardinal said.

He said the campaign’s case statement is a “living” one, made in the lives of those who have gone through formation in schools or parishes, “who are now in various positions in our society and in our church,” he said.

Bishop Francis Kane serves as the campaign’s general chair and Bishop George Rassas serves as the major gifts episcopal liaison.

While Catholic education always focuses on womb to tomb, the bulk of this campaign focuses on Catholic schools, said Catholic Schools Superintendent Dominican Sister M. Paul McCaughey.

Schools are the hope for the future and Sister M. Paul said the academics are excellent, “but our key thing is access. And we need access. We need to have young people be able to share in what Father Andrew Greeley called ‘a sign of hope.’ We know that we can produce citizens that are hopeful, citizens of the world and of the church. If we do that, as a sense of justice, we as Catholics provide the best darned education in the world. That’s exactly what we intend to do.”

However, that education costs money.

“The school system is under a lot of stress,” said James Perry, the campaign’s major gifts chairperson, managing director for Madison Dearborn Partners and member of the archdiocesan Board of Catholic Schools. The archdiocese supports the school system to the tune of about $25 million a year.

“That amount of money is just not sustainable,” Perry said at the press conference. “We made the determination that we needed to do something significant, we needed to do something grand.”

This school system is “worth saving.”

“Not only is it the future of our Catholic community, it’s also an alternative to the public school system.” Perry said. “If you believe in school choice, if you believe in alternatives for families, you must get behind this campaign.”

For more information, visit www.toteachwhochristis.org.

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