In this week’s Catholic Herald, Archbishop Dolan announces that the “Faith In Our Future Capital Campaign” to raise $105 Million dollars primarily for Catholic Education and Faith Formation is beginning this weekend. Evidently the plan is that local parishes of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee will keep roughly $63 Million dollars of the $105 Million dollars that they plan to raise over the next three years and that much of this money will go toward the faith formation programs developed by the local parishes.
Archbishop Dolan says that this Capital Campaign is a way for him to teach us about the importance of Catholic Stewardship. He gives us three “towering reasons” for starting this campaign.
1. Getting serious about stewardship. Where stewardship is NOT paying God a bribe but giving back to God what is His through our time, talent and money.
2. Uniting Catholics in this Archdiocese to make an act of faith in the future of our church. The Archbishop says that for the last five years he has heard from people that we need a cause around which to unite to show that we love the Church, need the Church, and to show faith that the Lord meant it when he said he would be with the Church till the end of time.
3. The Archdiocese needs the money. The Archbishop says that teaching the Catholic faith to people is expensive.
I have to say that I would love to give money to this Capital Campaign if I was confident that the authentic Catholic faith would actually be taught in the parishes in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. However, I am of the opinion that if I were to give money to this campaign that I would be enabling disobedient priests to continue to promote heresy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee rather than supporting the promotion of authentically Catholic faith formation.
For example, what is being taught in my own parish at this time through the way in which the Liturgy is celebrated is NOT authentically Catholic. The Priest that Archbishop Dolan sent us does not believe it is appropriate to call God Father and changes the words of the Eucharistic Prayers to reflect these beliefs. Complaints to him and the Archdiocese about this have resulted in nothing except that our priest is more determined than ever to continue to promote this heresy in our community.
Since this is the case, I would never, ever want to give this priest (or the Archdiocese that tolerates his antics) any more money than he already has to promote his heresy in my parish community. For me and others whose have been sent priests by Archbishop Dolan who dissent from Church teaching, it is faithful stewardship NOT to give to this campaign until Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Sklba start fulfilling their role as our spiritual fathers and finally send us priests who truly believe in what it is the Church teaches and who faithfully instruct us in those teachings that are authentically Catholic as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
I also think the fact that we need to have a fund raising campaign to unite us Catholics here in Milwaukee is truly sad. Think about it: Catholics have the Eucharist! The very body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ! I wonder if it even occurred to our Archbishop that perhaps if he lead us to greater faith in the Eucharist by demanding that his priests celebrate the Mass faithfully and demanding that his priests teach us authentic Catholic doctrine as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that perhaps then we would not need something so trivial as raising money to unite us.
(Oh, and I suspect that the bank account of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee would no longer be in the red either. See Matthew 6:33)
