Giving is up in the diocese

Vincentian Father Mark Pranaitis, diocesan director of stewardship and development, gives a nice response to a recent Gazette article that says charitable giving to religious organizations is down. Here's Father Mark's letter:

The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs has a different experience to report than the general decline in giving to religious organizations presented in The Gazette’s Feb. 23 report, “Where has all the giving gone?” From 2000 to the present, weekly offertory (in all 44 parishes and mission churches of the diocese) has increased from $15.8 million to more than $19.6 million. At the same time, the annual appeal, begun in 2004, has generated more than $8 million.

Additionally, Catholic Charities, a legally separate organization, reported being surprised by the overwhelming generosity of its donors in the past year. While individual parishioners come and go, choose to give to other charities, and national and local economies can rise and fall, the overall outlook for Catholic parishes, the diocese, and other Catholic organizations seems quite good — thank God.

Contrary to the article’s comments about stewardship, I find that when it is presented as a way of life, not merely a fundraising gimmick, parishioners respond to the call to be thankful, responsible, generous and accountable.

Rev. Mark Pranaitis
Director of Stewardship and Development
Diocese of Colorado Springs

Be Not Afraid (inspiring Web site)

Earlier today, I received a cool e-mail from someone from Illinois who stumbled upon the Herald Web site and saw our story on the miracle birth of Gianna Kottler ("Heaven Sent"). Turns out this woman, Monica Rafie, runs a Web site called Be Not Afraid and offers support and lots of inspiring stories for parents who undergoing difficult pregnancies. You should definitely check it out... It's a wonderful site that reminds us that, no matter what difficult time we may be going through, we are never alone.

A Friday lunch idea

Last Friday, I came across a lunch cafe set up at Our Lady of Guadalupe. The parish has a Lenten Friday menu for lunch and supper that features meatless Mexican dishes, and proceeds go toward renovation projects at the parish social hall.

I had the chile rellenos, prepared by Father Alfredo Garcia, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I highly recommend them. Lunch runs roughly from 11:30-1:30, and dinner is from 4:30-6:30.

If you're in the area (the corner of Pikes Peak and Circle), it's worth a stop.

The cost of eating organic

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to the slowly growing (and very interesting) comment thread, I've moved this topic up to the top of blog to see if we can continue it.]

This is an interesting post on Dominic Bettinelli's blog about how increasingly hard it is to eat organic, especially if you have a growing family. We're thinking about doing a series on how large Catholic families make ends meet, whether it's from the material goods perspective to parenting. I'd love to hear some thoughts on the below post.

Balancing organic against affordable

Since we’ve only one salary to live on, Melanie and I have made a resolution to get our budget into shape. A major part of that budget, of course, is food and because we love cooking and good food, we’re learning to be creative. It’s not like beef tenderloin was a regular entree (like never!), but we often pay more for every day items that are higher quality.

For example, we buy organic milk mainly because it is certified free of bovine growth hormones (BGH) and other additives that some say are harmful to developing children. I feel better knowing that Isabella and Melanie, who’s carrying Sophie now, aren’t ingesting it, however safe the government and the dairy industry say it is. Not to mention that it tastes better: 2 percent milk tastes like whole milk and even skim tastes like 1 percent. Unfortunately, we pay about twice as much or even more per gallon for the privilege of being free of these additives. And it seems we’ll soon be forced to pay even more.

The forces that have driven grocery prices up sharply over the past year - growing demand for food in China and a global biofuels boom - have had an impact on the organic food market as well. Meanwhile, US farmers haven’t kept pace with demand for organic food, sales of which shot up 21 percent in 2006, and that has also sent prices soaring. And supplies of organic soybeans and grains are squeezed - not only are they needed for human consumption, they serve as feed for the animals that will be sent to market as certified organic beef, chicken, and pork.

In addition to those aforementioned reasons, the process for going organic is extremely costly and time-consuming. For one thing it takes three years of no pesticides or any of the other materials before the organic label can be applied and all your resources have to be organic too, such as water and animal feed. The farmers just can’t go organic faster than the consumers do it and so demand outstrips supply and prices rise.

I don’t know if we’ll go without our organic milk or if we’ll just have more bean-and-rice dinners to compensate, but it’s not easy or cheap to do the right thing nutritionally for your family.

Hockey Weekend Across America

I thought this might interest some of our readers. USA Hockey is sponsoring Hockey Weekend Across America Feb. 15-17. Friday is "Wear your jersey to school" day, but why limit it to the youngsters? I'll be sporting a hockey sweater around the Herald offices tomorrow. I doubt, however, that we'll be screening "Slap Shot" at the chancery; maybe "The Rocket."

Even Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan owns a Blues jersey, given to him in October by Catholic Charities of Colorado Springs executive director Jason Christensen (he's the one wearing a Blues sweater) in October.

I encourage you to participate at your workplace. It'll bring a whole new dimension to casual Friday. In the meantime, here's an auditory treat, purportedly one of Gordie Howe's favorite arena songs.

A "respect life" story

I heard about an interesting story of a woman thought to be dying but who woke up from a coma even as the family was making funeral arrangements.

Pro-life vs. pro-life

Looks like Senate Bill 95, which would have required women to have ultrasounds and acquire informed consent prior to having an abortion, is dead. SB 95 not the end of Roe vs. Wade, but it is a step up from what currently exists in Colorado. However, apparently during the testimony phase yesterday at the capitol, Colorado Right to Life spoke against the bill because it was not a 100 percent outlawing of abortion. So yes, their "no" vote was lined up right next to the likes of NARAL, who also testified against it. Colorado Right to Life's testimony contradicted opposing testimony from other pro-life lobbyists and caused the bill to be shelved.

At one point, Joe Riccobono, legislative chairman for Colorado Right to Life, lambasted the bill as “pruning a weed.”

“It’s the regulation of child killing,” Riccobono said, as he argued for an outright ban instead of more regulation.

Colorado Right to Life is only hurting the pro-life movement by sinking legislation like SB 95. It wouldn't lead to the complete ending of abortion but lives would be saved, as ultrasounds have proven to be a very effective way to convince mothers to keep their unborn children. Colorado Right to Life may think they're being vigilant, but when you have a chance to upgrade the law from what it was -- even if it's not the ultimate law you seek -- you take it. No wonder National Right to Life shed itself of this group.

Herald Radio Show returns to KFEL!

Tune into KFEL 970 AM tomorrow (Wed.) at 6 p.m. to listen to back-to-back episodes of The Colorado Catholic Herald Show. Our two interview subjects tomorrow night are Catholic Olympic Cross Country skiier Rebecca Dussault and Catholic Charities of Colorado Springs executive director Jason Christensen.

Also, we're happy to announce that KFEL will broadcast in two one-hour parts Christopher West's electric theology of the body talk from December at St. Patrick. When we get the broadcast times for that, we'll let you know.

We've also got some fun stuff coming up ... Hopefully in March, we'll debut a new, 15-minute show where Bishop Sheridan answers questions from children in our diocesan schools (as well as from listeners). We'll also let you know when that is ready to launch. To submit a question, send it to: editor@coloradocatholicherald.com.

Spread the word!

National Pancake Day

I know this post is a little late getting out, but today is national pancake day. Go out and get yourself some free pancakes to honor that greatest of breakfast foods (but it's not just for breakfast). IHOP is asking for donations to the Children's Miracle Network during the promotion.

That's with the caveat that I'm not sure where the Children's Miracle Network stands on embryonic stem-cell research.

Archbishop Chaput on separation of church and state

Archbishop Chaput had a strong column in First Things yesterday, saying that recent legislation proposed in Colorado that is supposed to be aimed at having the church play by state rules if it accepts church money is really a far more hostile attack on the church in general.

This is something that I've noticed too over the last three years in witnessing some of the hearings on legislation that affects the church. It seems that the aim is not just to separate church and state, but to bury churches. At the heart of this, I'm starting to believe more and more, is a desire among some in power for an atheistic society. Archbishop Chaput goes so far as to say that, even though statistics say there are more Catholics in the world than any other faith, that the Catholic view is rapidly losing weight in the public arena.

The lesson here for American Catholics is this: For more than forty years, we’ve worked to integrate, accommodate, and assimilate to American society in the belief that a truly diverse public square would have room for authentically Catholic life and faith. We need to revisit that assumption. It turns out that nobody gets anything for free. If we want to influence, or even have room to breathe in the American environment of coming generations, we’ll need to work for it and fight for it—always in a spirit of justice and charity, but also vigorously and without apology. Anyone who still has an easy confidence about the Catholic “place” in American life had better wake up.

We need to fight, indeed, and that means knowing our faith so we can defend it.

Benedictine sisters use Super Bowl to raise money

Now this is a good modern-day example of the Parable of the Talents.

Would you go to this?

The Theology of the Body Institute in Pennsylvania is looking into holding its popular one-week immersion course with Christopher West at St. Malo Retreat Center in May. Here are details. If you're interested, please respond in the comment box. The following is a note from Matt Dalton in Denver, who attended the January immersion course in Pennsylvania.

At the beginning of January 2008, (myself and 90 other people) from around the world, priests, deacons, religious Sisters and Brothers, seminarians and other lay people attended the "Head and Heart Immersion Course" at the Theology of the Body (TOB) Institute in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

To a person, we were all touched deeply! Some of you have heard me describe this retreat, this life-changing experience. Fr. Kevin McGoldrick who had attended a previous course, hits the nail right on the head when he writes, "The Theology of the Body cannot be simply relegated to marriage and family or sexual ethics. Its scope is much broader, touching on everything concerning the human experience. This theology is the groundwork for a re-articulation of the entire faith in view of a New Evangelization."–Fr. Kevin B. McGoldrick, M.Div., M.A., S.T.B. Priest, Diocese of Philadelphia

I am writing you all today to ask you a very serious question. If this course were to be offered at Camp St. Malo in Estes Park, Colorado, May 11th through May 16th, would you attend? The course fee is approximately $950 to $1,000 per person for the week. This includes your stay at St. Malo, meals and course materials.Again, as some of you know, this Theology from Pope John Paul II is in large part, thanks be to God, what brought me personally to the ownership of our beautiful Catholic faith. Since hearing this Theology 9 years ago, I have been studying and we are now utilizing it in our apostolate. God has allowed Christopher West, who will be presenting in May, to take his presentations of the TOB to a new level! Christopher has steeped himself in prayer, sought tremendous spiritual direction and has incorporated the new English translation of the TOB written by well known and respected Dr. Michael Waldstein (see attached article). All of this is why I write you today with such urgency.If the Theology of the Body Institute gets a good response from this email, they are seriously considering offering this course in Colorado in May. They asked me to find out the real interest here locally. There will be room for approximately 90 people. At this date and time, would you attend?

-Definitely yes.

-Maybe.

-May is busy but would consider another time either in Pennsylvania or future Colorado courses.

Please indicate and reply ASAP!

Scott Hahn coming to the Springs

Mark your calendars...

Popular apologist Scott Hahn will be giving a lecture at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 2650 Parish View, Colorado Springs on May 17. The talk is sponsored by KFEL Catholic radio. More details to follow.