Annual ACA appeal: People and ministries depend on it!

Every year at this time we embark on a critically important campaign for our local Church: the Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal (ACA).  Here’s why it’s so vital—especially now.

When we think of the Church, we usually think first of our own parish. That makes sense, because that’s where we live out most of our lives as Catholics. At our parishes we encounter Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and the Word of God.  It’s where couples are married, babies are baptized, sins are confessed and families come together for the burial of loved ones.

But a Catholic understanding of the Church is much broader than our parishes.  In fact, each of our parishes is a local expression of the larger, archdiocesan Church.   And each part of that larger Church, whether it be in the northwest corner of Colorado or the heart of Denver, is an essential part of the body of Christ.

The Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal (ACA) is a key way of contributing to that community of faith which is the Church in northern Colorado. We believe that the Church is the ongoing presence of Christ in the world.  We’re called as his Church to do as Jesus did, and that can be summarized in three brief reflections.

The first thing the Church is called to do is evangelization; in other words, to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior—even when the Gospel message is unwelcome in the world around us.

The second mission of the Church is to build up the community of faith internally through education and fellowship.

The third thing the Church is called to do—and which our archdiocese always seeks to do—is to care for those who are in need, especially in rough economic times like today.   Jesus didn’t require people to believe in him before he loved them, healed them or entered their lives. As a Church, we have the duty to be the presence of Christ in the lives of others—even those who are not believers.

This is why I’m never ashamed to ask our Catholic community for financial help through the ACA.  Money is a vital means of assisting others.  In fact, the Acts of the Apostles describe Peter and Paul as often taking up collections for the poor and for the Mother Church in Jerusalem.

Giving of our resources is an important sign of faith. All of us as believers, bishops and other clergy included, should tithe all that we have back to God—ideally, 10 percent of our incomes; but if that’s not possible, at least some regular, sacrificial percentage of our personal resources.

The more generous we are with God, the more God gives back to us.   Our annual ACA campaign is—quite literally—the lifeblood of more than 40 archdiocesan ministries, supporting, in various ways, everything from Catholic education, to our prolife efforts, to Hispanic ministry, to the formation of our seminarians, to Catholic Charities.  In other words, the ACA is absolutely vital to the on-going work of the Church in northern Colorado.

I’m grateful for the gift of being called to serve as your bishop. Because of that call, one of my duties is to invite each of you to respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in your own lives.  Please be as generous as possible this year when you’re asked to contribute to the ACA.  Many, many deserving ministries depend on the success of the ACA—which means, ultimately, that they depend on you and me.  God bless you for your kindness.