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From 2014 to 2015, the Archdiocese of Chicago ran a capital campaign called To Teach Who Christ Is<\/a>.\u00a0 The Archdiocese\u2019s purpose in the campaign was to generate $150 million for scholarships for Catholic schools, but in order to make the campaign palatable, each parish was instructed to come up with capital projects of some sort or another, so that an additional $150 million of the overall goal of $350 million was for the use of the individual parishes.\u00a0 (In my own parish, the money was used for deferred maintenance needs such as a new roof, windows, doors, etc.)\u00a0 It was promoted as \u201chistoric\u201d and \u201cgenerational\u201d \u2014 but in many respects, I should have realized at the time that a \u201ccapital\u201d campaign which intends to spend its money on ongoing expenses such as school tuition, is not really a Capital Campaign.\u00a0 For that matter, I had assumed that the \u201ccapital\u201d nature meant that the scholarship money would be going into an endowment, but according to Chicago Tribune reporting, back when this existed (July 28, 2019, via the ProQuest library archival tool), that early intention didn\u2019t actual happen, in part because of short-term needs and the large proportion of \u201cfunds raised\u201d that came in the form of will bequests from people who haven\u2019t died yet.\u00a0 However, at the time of this article, \u201cthere are no plans for another major general fundraising\u00a0campaign,\u201d according to Betsy Bohlen, the archdiocese\u2019s COO.<\/span><\/p>\n And before that campaign, there was a campaign in 2002 and 2003 called \u201cSharing Christ\u2019s Gifts\u201d for $220 million.\u00a0 At the time it was the biggest capital campaign ever<\/a>, with fundraising goals set at 100% of a parish\u2019s annual collection.\u00a0 This campaign\u2019s funds largely stayed with the parishes, with only 20% going directly to the archdiocese (plus an undisclosed additional amount according to the Tribune<\/a>), and did not appear to have a specific objective other than vaguely to force parishes to engage in deferred maintenance, but at the same time as this campaign ran, they also ran another campaign:<\/p>\n The $100 million major-donors campaign will pump money directly into the city parochial schools that have proved to be one of the biggest drains on church coffers. Officials have tried to keep that effort under wraps, hoping to secure a large portion of the gifts before going public with the news.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Were there other large-scale campaigns before this?\u00a0 If so, I can\u2019t find evidence of them.\u00a0 My impression from hints in articles is that individual churches ran their own campaigns as needed, and the Big Shoulders Fund for Catholic schools was an ongoing fund.<\/p>\n But these two campaigns, marketed as \u201conce in a generation\u201d and calling for sacrificial levels of donations, seem to have been just the first two of what appears to now be a once-a-decade cadence, as I have just found out that yet another campaign has been going on since last year:\u00a0 \u201cGeneration to Generation: Answering the Call.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 Where\u2019s the money going now?\u00a0 50% of the goal, or $100 million, will stay within the local parishes.\u00a0 Another $60 million is claimed to be to be used to \u201canswer the call to spiritually renew our parishes.\u201d\u00a0 Trying to parse the word salad here is difficult but it looks like they are funding consultants who will work with parishes on \u201cbest practices\u201d for outreach and increasing parish involvement.\u00a0 $60 million is a lot for this, though, especially when there have been similar initiatives in the past (such as the Parish Transformation Initiative which I asked readers about in 2015<\/a> as my parish was apparently awaiting its \u201cturn\u201d and seems to have been discontinued shortly thereafter) \u2013 maybe this actually funds new staff members in targeted parishes?\u00a0 Or is the archdiocese \u201ccharging\u201d parishes large sums of money for their expertise, which is then directed to other Pastoral Center spending such as flashy donations by the cardinal, \u201cgreen\u201d energy, trips to Rome, etc. \u2014 or filling in holes left by clerical abuse settlements?\u00a0 $100 million is going to \u201csupport for priests\u201d \u2013 of which $14 million to the seminary, $23 million to pastoral\/professional development, and $63 million to retirement (pensions and healthcare).\u00a0 I\u2019m particularly annoyed at this last one because it says that they have been skimping on funding their pension funds despite the annual collection for the purpose.\u00a0 And lastly, $40 million will go to fund poor parishes\u2019 operating costs.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not seeing anything that looks like a good idea here.<\/p>\n The archdiocese is essentially forcing parishes to defer their ongoing maintenance until the next Capital Campaign, or to come up with capital projects even when they aren\u2019t appropriate, in order to get local parishes to accept this \u201ctax\u201d by the archdiocese.\u00a0 (Separately, I\u2019ve read that it\u2019s 125% of annual collections.)\u00a0 And then they are spending this money on operating expenses.\u00a0 Is this all a matter of trying to force parishes to give more to the archdiocese even when they have communicated their dislike of Cupich\u2019s actions?\u00a0 How often can Cupich play that game?\u00a0 What happens if parishes just say \u201cno\u201d?\u00a0 How many \u201ccapital\u201d projects can a parish conjure up?\u00a0 Or will they follow the cardinals\u2019 demands but simply shore up their savings for future operating expenses?\u00a0 And, given the prior reporting, will the archdiocese\u2019s take even go where they say it will?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From 2014 to 2015, the Archdiocese of Chicago ran a capital campaign called To Teach Who Christ Is.\u00a0 The Archdiocese\u2019s purpose in the campaign was to generate $150 million for scholarships for Catholic schools, but in order to make the campaign palatable, each parish was instructed to come up with capital projects of some sort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,235,1526],"class_list":["post-19001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archbishop-cupich","tag-archdiocese-of-chicago","tag-capital-campaigns"],"yoast_head":"\n