Catholic Church News

Washington, DC – – Father Paul Locatelli, S.J. a philanthropic advisor and expert on Catholic higher education, and a frequent guest at gatherings of Foundations and Donors Interest in Catholic Activities, died on July 12, 2010 after a struggle with pancreatic cancer. “We have lost a good friend, holy priest, and brilliant educational leader”, said Dr. Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president. “Father Paul Locatelli, S.J. whose counsel and advice was extremely influential and hopeful as many foundations looked to the future of Jesuit colleges and universities”, Dr. Butler added. “We can only express our gratitude to him for the inspiring vision that he brought to Catholic higher education both at Santa Clara and subsequently as Secretary for Jesuit Higher Education,” Dr. Butler added. Father Locatelli met in October, 2008 with the members of FADICA for a conference to mark Father Locatelli’s service in Jesuit Catholic Higher Education. The program held in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia included Fr. Locatelli’s upbeat appraisal of the growing interaction of Jesuit colleges and universities world wide. “We see globalization as the new context of our effort as educators. And we must ask not whether we are educating for global society but how well,” Father Locatelli told the FADICA conference participants. Father Locatelli’s commitment to educating students about poverty and injustice extended from the streets of east San Jose to the jungles of El Salvador and to Rome. He retired from the presidency of Santa Clara university in 2008, but held the title of chancellor. For the past two years he has

Washington, D.C. – – The Catholic Funding Guide, a directory and database providing information on 1,189 private, corporate, fraternal, and church based funding agencies, has just been published. The Guide, now in its eleventh year of publication, has been used by thousands of parishes, schools, universities, healthcare institutions, and missionary groups as a resource for preparing grant proposals and reaching funding agencies with Catholic interests. Over 410 new entries are contained in this new, sixth edition of the The Catholic Funding Guide, and 286 entries contained in the previous edition, published in 2007 were eliminated. The collective grantmaking of the funders listed in The Catholic Funding Guide totals over $8 billion annually. The book contains information on Catholic funding agencies operating throughout the world including grant sources under the auspices of the Holy See. For the first time ever, The Catholic Funding Guide is being made available on a subscription basis online. Online subscribers will have the advantage of searchable functions and a database that is continuously updated over time. Research for The Catholic Funding Guide is based on a review of government tax records filed by foundations and charities or, when not available, published annual reports. Guide editors look for consistent patterns of grant support for Catholic activities over time rather than sporadic or irregular assistance. The Guide is presented as a starting point for its users, aiming to save them time in beginning their search for funding assistance. Listed in the Guide are supplemental data bases and research resources like those in the Foundation Center network that can help the user to put together effective proposals and broader donor bases.

Washington D.C. Catholic Charities USA has awarded $2,010,000 to congregations of women religious based in the New Orleans area to help them restore ministries to the poor, severely diminished, or completely destroyed by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. The grant, approved by the Disaster Response Office of Catholic Charities USA, will be administered by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Silver Spring, Md. It forms part of a larger fundraising effort over the past two years co-sponsored by LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious), and FADICA (Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities) a consortium of private grant making agencies. The LCWR/FADICA New Orleans Recovery Project was begun in 2006 following visits by the leadership of the two organizations to view firsthand the storm damages to convents, schools, and ministries to the poor. Notable during the visit was the destruction of nursing facilities, schools, community and daycare centers, and other services to the poor sponsored by religious women. Subsequently, LCWR and FADICA joined forces to assist eight communities of religious women in New Orleans with their fundraising priorities. With the leadership of the SC Ministry Foundation, and help from several additional foundation members within FADICA, as well as the Sisters of Charity of Cleveland Foundation and the Alleghany Franciscan Foundation of Florida, a fundraising office was opened in 2007. Sr. Suzanne Hall, SNDdeN, an attorney, co-foundress of the Sisters Academy of Baltimore, and former Director of the USCCB Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, was appointed as the Project Coordinator and principal

A national conference of Catholic school experts and philanthropists held in association with FADICA’s 32nd annual meeting finds that more innovative school leadership, transparent and accountable school operations, and hands-on help from the higher educational institutions hold the key to the future of Catholic schools. “At present there is an acute shortage of people well prepared for school leadership”, said Dr. Karen Ristau, President of the National Catholic Education Association, one of a dozen national experts addressing FADICA’s conference: Catholic Schools, A New Chapter in An Old Story. Dr. Ristau addressed an audience of 100 private foundation representatives gathered January 24-25, to discuss Catholic school leadership, finances, school performance, and innovation. “Donors today want to see their money working”, said Dr. Mary McDonald, School Superintendant for the Diocese of Memphis. “Accountability is the prerequisite to turning schools around,” she added. Loyola University’s Dr. Lorraine Ozar, Director of the Center for Catholic School Effectiveness, remarked that Catholic schools were at a watershed moment yet, “it is a rare diocese that is transparent about their school data”. Professor Dr. Mary Walsh of Boston College agreed. “Parents have an impossible job in comparing Catholic schools to other schools,” she noted. Diocesan school offices, she told the audience “generally do not release school data and sometimes take the position that comparisons are odious.” The FADICA conference comes at a time when donor involvement in Catholic schools is increasing nationally. Nonetheless, schools still face declining enrollments and sharply higher operating costs. Nearly 500 Catholic schools have been closed across the county

Washington DC, A massive study based on 35,000 telephone interviews across the country has found large numbers of Catholics have drifted away from their church either to other faith groups or dropping out entirely. The “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, found that the Catholic church has suffered the greatest loss in absolute numbers, with approximately one-third of those raised Catholic saying they no longer belong to the church. Close to 10 percent of all Americans, the survey notes, are former Catholics, most of whom find new homes in other churches. “The disturbing findings of the Pew research underscores the urgency of reshaping the operative culture in many Catholic parishes and religious institutions to one in which people feel more valued and invested”, said Francis J. Butler, President of the philanthropic organization, FADICA. “Of the greatest urgency to a growing number of private, Catholic donors today, are programs and activities that welcome and enable broader numbers of believers, especially younger people, to exercise their gifts and grow in faith,” he added. Despite massive membership attrition within U.S. Catholicism, the Pew study found that the Catholic church still represents one quarter of all religiously affiliated adults in the United States. The large size of the church’s membership, the study noted, was in no small part due to recent immigration. Pew reported that 45 percent of all Catholics eighteen to twenty-nine years of age are now Latino. For the past three decades social research has tracked declining denominational engagement across the

Washington, DC – – Renowned Jesuit scholar and preacher and winner of FADICA’s Distinguished Catholic Leadership Award for his work to improve the quality of preaching in American parishes, died February 16, 2008 of natural causes. Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president said, “We have lost one of the most influential spiritual leaders of our day, a priest of uncommon zeal for the Word of God.” Father Burghardt, a patristic scholar who taught at Woodstock College, Catholic University, Union Theological Seminary, and Princeton, was the editor of Theological Studies and a prolific spiritual writer. In 1990 Father Burghardt became a Senior Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, where he began a national effort to improve preaching on issues of social justice. In 1989, Father Burghardt addressed the members of FADICA on the state of parish preaching in a national symposium entitled: To Proclaim the Faith. He urged greater efforts to move preaching from “scholarly abstractness to works and symbols that speak to the heart of our age and to the experience of our people”. The influence of Father Burghardt’s words upon the foundation community led to a collaborative effort soon thereafter among FADICA’s foundations to work with the Weston Jesuit School of Theology to set higher standards for seminary homiletics. A multi-year program at Weston was funded by FADICA members to improve course work in homiletics within American seminaries and to work directly with seminary faculty to build up course offerings. The curricula piloted through the project eventually became part of the official program for