After a separation of one year, SUPERBOWL SUNDAY & PLEDGE SUNDAY are back on the same Sunday – PERFECT TOGETHER.  Maybe we should consider turning on Channel 2 just to get a score before the attendees at the 6:30 Mass leave for home.  Of course I would have hoped the Giants were there.  And failing that, I would have liked to have seen a Jets/Vikings battle.  Maybe I can tell myself that PM is a Giant by blood.  In any case, for all you football fans, I hope it’s a good evening for you. 

Today is P-L-E-D-G-E Sunday.  I realize this is a tough economic environment and many are still suffering.  I simply ask every parish family to reflect on the cause, in relation to your own situation and put both needs before God, asking the Lord to help you decide how best to respond. 

You know how much I admire your generosity.  Over and over you have shown yourselves to be a caring people.  The most outstanding examples of that was the “on-the-spot” collection for the tsunami victims in Dec. of 04 and hurricane Katrina in 05 and, most recently, the earthquake in Haiti. Without advanced warning, the parish collected somewhere around $75,000 for those victims.  It, along with so many other causes, has been so generously supported by this parish community. 

Once again, I ask for similar support for the AAA.  I must admit, it is harder to be moved by this cause, precisely because the “cause” remains so broad.  It is because the Appeal supports so many causes that it’s hard to put a face on it.  But there are a host of faces of unseen victims behind this unseen cause.  There are the homeless of Hudson and Essex Counties, where Catholic Charities operates the largest system of homeless shelters.  Included in these are the special shelters, for mothers and their children, for persons with HIV Aids, and transitional housing where people can find a secure place to stay while they’re getting their lives in order, such as seeking help with psychiatric problems, drug abuse, or job training.  Then there are the faces of the hungry, the refugees, the victims of human trafficking and the mentally, socially and developmentally challenged children.  All of these victims of poverty are the clients of Catholic Charities, one of the causes supported by the AAA.

But there are also other victims of poverty.  They are our brothers and sisters in the  faith who, because of their lack of means, cannot afford to meet their own spiritual needs.  Each year, the Archdiocese provides 10 million dollars in assistance to parishes that basically would not exist without that kind of help. Bluntly put, these parishes would close if the Archdiocese were not there to sustain them and the only way that can be done is through the generosity of others in the Archdiocese who have been blessed by God with so many material gifts. These are harder results to quantify but isn’t reaching the hearts and souls of men and women, providing comfort and peace to those struggling against life’s difficulties, just as important? 

The Archbishop’s Annual Appeal makes these, and many other causes (such as care of infirm priests) possible.  As we all know, this year continues to be a challenge, for everyone.  I know this is true here, as elsewhere.  How can we, as a parish community, continue to support all those in need, even with our own challenges?  As I see it, only by inviting more families to join us.  I have always said we were not looking for extraordinary gifts, but rather manageable gifts from a larger number of families.  In other words, I make a special plea this year to all our parish families to join the Appeal, especially if you’ve left it to “someone else” in the past, because that “someone else” may now be in need themselves.  Whether it’s here or in Newark or Jersey

 
City, that old saying is proving truer now than ever, “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” 

There is also a very practical reason to pledge.  We have not stressed this in a number of years, but the parish gets back a percentage of everything over our goal.  For a number of years, we gave the entire rebate away to various causes.  But since we began the Sharing Our Gifts weekly tithe, we have kept the rebate for parish needs.  So making a pledge to the AAA is also a way of helping the parish. 

For all of these reasons, PLEASE PLEDGE TODAY. 

God Bless,
Fr. Ron