The parish is where the Church lives and where our efforts are directed. The Eucharist is the center of that home and a key objective of Our Campaign for The Church Alive! is to strengthen our life in the Eucharist by strengthening our parishes.

Every parish has needs. Every parish has dreams. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! focuses first on identifying and funding vital needs in each of our 199 parishes, where the faith is handed down from generation to generation.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! is intended to address extraordinary needs of our Diocese and our individual parishes. As a result of each parish’s Pastoral Planning process, each parish is in the best position to determine its extraordinary needs, and among them its most urgent priorities. For every dollar raised in a standard parish campaign, 40 cents, less a proportionate share of campaign expenses, is returned to the parish to fund its local priorities. When a parish surpasses its target, it receives 60 cents, less a portion of campaign expenses, of every dollar raised over its goal.

It is our parishes that are benefiting most from Our Campaign for The Church Alive!

The direct benefits to parishes through Our Campaign for The Church Alive! amount to 40 percent of the fundraising goal. However, when examining the indirect benefits and the direct benefits this campaign will provide to parishes, the percentage amounts to an estimated 69 percent.

The Bishop’s Education Fund, established in 1993 to provide tuition assistance for families in need, is an endowment within the Sharing in Faith TM, Our Catholic Legacy Foundation. Since the fund was established, more than $20,400,000 has been raised and $10,200,000 in assistance has been given to more than 35,000 children from nearly every parish in our Diocese. Many students in our Catholic community would like to benefit from a Catholic education but a number of these students need financial assistance. The Bishop’s Education Fund makes assistance available.

Yet, grants from the Bishop’s Education Fund cover only a fraction of the need. In 2011-2012, our Catholic school families in the Diocese of Pittsburgh needed more than $12,600,000 to meet the cost of Catholic education. Our tuition assistance funds provided $3,300,000, which is about one-quarter (26%) of the overall need. Additional funding is required so that more families can keep their children in our Catholic schools. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will allocate $12,000,000 to the Bishop’s Education Fund. This will increase the Fund’s endowment by 60 percent, enabling thousands of additional students to benefit from a Catholic education.

Applications for a need-based BEF tuition grant are available through our Catholic schools. Please see your pastor or school principal for an application.

Today, technological access, advancement, and development for every student in our Catholic secondary schools are fundamental needs. A surge in private funding through this campaign will provide that important technological resources be maintained, improved and offered in every Catholic high school in the Church of Pittsburgh.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will establish a $5,000,000 fund for our secondary schools to provide our students with a support system that will both accommodate today’s information formats and evolve with the changes ahead. Funds from Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will position our schools at the forefront in technology services and education.

These campaign funds are intended to be applied Diocesan-wide to improve technology education and services for students in the Diocesan Catholic High Schools. Grant applications by individuals or individual schools are not accepted.

In consultation with the Superintendent for Catholic Schools, the Secretary for Evangelization and Catholic Education and the Catholic secondary schools of the Diocese, the Diocesan General Secretary will recommend for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive! technology grants where they will have the widest and greatest impact possible and encourage and reward collaboration, cooperation and alignment of these high schools.

Only three public school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania educate more students than the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Within the six counties of our Diocese, 88 schools serve more than 20,000 students and employ over 1,500 teachers in our elementary and secondary schools.

The northern tier of our Diocese contains the fastest growing population center in southwestern Pennsylvania. As a result of this unprecedented growth, there are many students in both Catholic and public elementary schools who currently have no access or limited access to a Catholic high school.

The Church of Pittsburgh has built a Catholic high school in Cranberry Township where the population of the region continues to grow. Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School, a new school constructed for 1,000 students, is located on a 71-acre prime development site at the center of this burgeoning region.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! directed $2,000,000 toward the construction of the chapel at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School. An additional $8,000,000 will be used for debt service as needed over the next five years.

This $2,000,000 investment will cover three percent of the total $71,000,000 in development and construction costs. The balance will be funded through a combination of bond financing, other conventional borrowing, the sale of obsolete buildings, philanthropic support, and tuition revenue. Ultimately, the majority of the cost will be covered by the new high school itself.

Because these campaign funds are restricted, grant applications are not accepted.    

Nearly thirty years ago, Father Edward Farina established a fund in honor of his four brothers. Five Farina brothers were ordained as priests and faithfully served our Diocese. The purpose of the Fathers Farina Fund has been to assist catechetical program managers with the cost of studies to earn a bachelor’s degree or an undergraduate theology certificate.

There are currently 82 parish program managers. Since Father Farina began his support, 27 program managers have benefited from this scholarship fund, and eleven of those 27 have gone on to pursue graduate studies.

The costs of educating these program managers have escalated well beyond what Father Farina anticipated. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will infuse $4,000,000 into a permanent endowment that will provide an annual income stream to invest in this important religious education program.

These funds will be placed in an endowment fund in the Sharing in Faith TM, Our Catholic Legacy Foundation called the “Church Alive! Fathers Farina Endowment.”  Grant applications are welcomed from those who are currently serving as catechetical program managers.  The application must be approved first by the applicant’s pastor before being considered by the Board of Our Campaign for the Church Alive! for approval.  Grant funds will be restricted for tuition expenses toward earning a bachelor’s degree (or an undergraduate certificate) in theology or religious education.

Our priests must be strong leaders – faithful, dedicated, pastoral, knowledgeable, and comfortable with their people. To be a Church Alive!, we also must have exceptional lay leaders who assume their rightful role in the vineyard of the Lord. Pastoral leadership training is vital for our priests. With the demands of ministry and the complexity of operating parishes – and for many pastors, multiple parishes – the ability of our priests to lead more effectively and invite the leadership of others is paramount to building authentic, vibrant, and enthusiastic Catholic communities.

Good Leaders, Good Shepherds is a world-class program that we have successfully introduced in the Church of Pittsburgh for the continuing education of our priests. With Jesus Christ as the ultimate shepherd and model of leadership, the Good Leaders, Good Shepherds curriculum is designed to help Catholic priests meet the challenges of increasingly complex circumstances for priestly ministry. The impact is holy, healthy and happy shepherds of vibrant parish communities. Our goal is to allocate $1,500,000 to ensure every priest in our Diocese can participate in the program.

At the same time, more and more lay people require professional and pastoral training to work in partnership with our priests. Tending the Talents is a complementary program to Good Leaders, Good Shepherds, meant to strengthen our lay leaders and their ability to serve in the local Church.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will allocate $1,500,000 to provide scholarships and grants for laity to take part in Tending the Talents and for additional education and training programs in our parishes.

Grant applications for these Campaign funds will be accepted with the recommendation of either a pastor or regional vicar for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!    

Joyfully, the number of seminarians continues to increase each year. We are truly blessed to have so many men prayerfully discerning a vocation to the priesthood.

The average annual expense to educate one seminarian is $32,000. Our Diocese bears this cost, assisted by the Shepherds’ Care Fund. However, the Shepherds’ Care Fund can only distribute five percent of its assets, or about $35,000 per year, an amount that is clearly insufficient to meet the rising expenses of educating more seminarians. This figure does not include the cost of operating Saint Paul Seminary itself, which is approximately $832,000 annually.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will add $5,000,000 to the Shepherds’ Care Fund. These funds will be used to pay rising tuition, room and board costs, along with other educational expenses for those preparing for the priesthood.

These funds will also support expanded promotion of vocations so we can reach out to young men whom God is calling. In an increasingly secularized media culture, we must reach out through traditional and emerging advertising and communication vehicles, as well as through special spiritual programs, discernment direction, and retreats. Proposals for Vocations programs will be considered.

Grant applications for the education and formation of seminarians and for the promotion of vocations are to be submitted by the Rector of St.  Paul Seminary and the Diocesan General Secretary as the relevant responsibilities exist.  Such submissions will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!

Saint Anthony School Programs is a Catholic-based inclusive educational environment for children ages 5-21 with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, including autism.

Saint Anthony School Programs operates at numerous sites throughout our Diocese, serving children with special needs of all faiths. It was founded on the premise that acceptance and respect are as important to the learning process as reading and writing.

To expand our commitment to all of God’s children, Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will inject $2,000,000 into a new fund to expand services to students with special needs.

Grant applications that are submitted by Saint Anthony School Programs as well as by parishes in their outreach to students with special needs in their CCD or grade school programs will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!

Campus ministry programs keep young adults close to the Church during the critical college years. This ministry also serves as an outstanding resource for the Church in developing new and vibrant leadership, Christian service and evangelization, and also as a catalyst for future vocations.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will provide $1,000,000 to help support our campus ministry programs by:

• attracting campus ministry directors for programs that are growing, including Community College of Allegheny County Northside, Point Park University, the Art Institute in downtown Pittsburgh, California University, Washington and Jefferson College and Penn State-McKeesport;
• expanding the use of Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) teams at additional universities and colleges in our Diocese;
• creating an organizational structure as well as support for a more focused outreach through Saint Paul Cathedral parish, in serving the spiritual and formation needs of tens of thousands of college students who worship regularly at the Cathedral; and
• increasing the programmatic support for all our Campus Ministry programs including:  Westminster College, Washington and Jefferson College, Slippery Rock Newman Center, The Ryan Catholic Newman Center, Waynesburg College, Robert Morris University, and Penn State Beaver (just to name a few) so that they can better serve.

Grant applications from Catholic Campus Ministry programs within the Diocese require the approval of the Diocesan General Secretary (including the approval of the Secretary for Leadership) before being submitted for review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!     

Central to our faith is the call to evangelize. Pope Francis states, “to evangelize is to make the kingdom of God present in our world. Evangelization is the Church’s mission…it is mine, yours and our mission. Let us witness to the newness, hope and joy that the Lord brings to life. Let us feel within us the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing.”

Evangelization is central to The Church Alive! It means that we must first be renewed in our own faith through an encounter with the Lord, and support each other in the faith by becoming more involved in the life of our Church. Our response means we must call back those who have left the Church and reach out to those outside the Church, calling all to return home to the Father through the Son by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Diocesan and parish evangelization efforts will be renewed and revitalized through Our Campaign for The Church Alive! A comprehensive evangelization strategy has been developed to increase our capacity to expand and nurture the faith.

The presence of the Catholic Church will increase through new programs and communication outlets supported by $1,500,000 from Our Campaign for The Church Alive! A portion of the funds raised in this historic campaign will be directed toward assisting our parishes in our Diocese with their own evangelization efforts.

Grant applications that are made with the approval of the General Secretary and the recommendation of the Secretary for Evangelization and Catholic Education will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!   

The Saint Paul Campus – home to our own Saint Paul Seminary – has become a gathering place for the Church of Pittsburgh. The campus is minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, with easy access to highway arteries tying together our six counties from the north and south, east and west.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will help to bring to completion the development of the Saint Paul Campus. It is here where the Church of Pittsburgh will consolidate facilities, unify service, and establish the Diocesan Pastoral Center to better and more efficiently serve the spiritual needs of all six counties of our Diocese.

Three phases of the development of the Saint Paul Campus have been successfully completed over the past decade. Phelan Hall was refurbished to serve as the home of the Diocesan Judicial Center. The historic Bishop’s house in Oakland was sold and the proceeds from that sale helped in the renovation of Domenec Hall, where Bishop Zubik resides to be close to his future priests at Saint Paul Seminary. Domenec Hall also includes classrooms and numerous meeting rooms used by our entire Diocese. The renovation of O’Connor Hall was completed with the Cardinals’ Great Hall, meeting rooms, and the renovated Bishop John B. McDowell Auditorium, which now serve as critical meeting space for the needs of our Catholic community.

The next chapter envisions moving the Pastoral Center from the Boulevard of the Allies to the Saint Paul Campus. The new location will allow our Diocesan offices and activities to be accessed far more conveniently by all the people in our Catholic community. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will provide $10,000,000 to assist with the design and creation of the new Diocesan Pastoral Center at the Saint Paul Campus.

Because these funds are for specific restricted purposes, only grant applications made by the General Secretary will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!

Where the Need is Great and Where the Church is Needed

When we speak about our Diocese we speak of it as the “Church of Pittsburgh.” Yet it is important to always remind ourselves that our Church stretches from the most northern tip of Lawrence County to the most southern parish boundaries in Greene County bordering West Virginia. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! reminds us of our solidarity in all six counties rooted in a common faith, a common heritage, and a common future. It can be summarized in the expression: One Church, Alive in Six Counties.

Our responsibility to the future of our Diocese is to help every parish to grow stronger. At the same time, we need to help our sisters and brothers in parishes that are struggling in those areas in our Diocese where the Church must remain present. There are regions in our Diocese where, if a parish disappears, the presence of Church disappears as well. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will create a fund to provide these parishes with $7,000,000 in strategic assistance to help them not only survive, but to grow stronger.

Grant applications that are made with the recommendation of the Episcopal Council and the General Secretary will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for The Church Alive!

The faithful of our Diocese are noted for their respect and support for their priests. Those who have labored tirelessly in the Lord’s vineyard and have spent their lives in sacrifice for us and the Church are greatly admired and encouraged by those whom they have served.

Catholics throughout the six counties of our region have been generous through the years in support of our senior priests. The largest ordination classes of the 1960s through 1970 are now approaching retirement. Our priests are the primary spiritual shepherds of our parish communities throughout their years of faithful service and sacrifice. We owe them our support in their retirement. These men have served the faithful from cradle to grave. In their retirement, senior priests continue to assist in parishes and in Diocesan agencies.

Saint John Vianney Manor, the Diocesan facility offered to priests when they retire from parish life, is at maximum capacity, at times with a wait-list. The annual cost to operate Saint John Vianney Manor amounts to approximately $436,000.

Grateful for God’s many gifts in our lives, we have a good steward’s obligation to provide for the welfare of these men. Within the next decade, approximately 53 percent of the active clergy will turn at least 70 years of age. To meet the projected needs of our increasing numbers of senior priests, Bishop Zubik anticipates that the faithful of our Diocese will join him in taking the necessary steps to provide $5,000,000 in philanthropic support. Primary among the Bishop’s goals in providing for retired priests is improving and expanding our infrastructure to accommodate their needs for housing and ample opportunities for priestly fellowship and fraternity.

Because these funds are for specific restricted purposes, only grant applications made by the General Secretary will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!

The Diocese of Pittsburgh proclaims the Gospel and the teachings of the Church through all available forms of media, including the new technology of social communications; the Internet; audio; digital and print, particularly The Pittsburgh Catholic. We need to continue to expand our use of every form of media, but especially electronic media to reach our youth and young adults, while we continue to minster to the elderly, shut-in, or otherwise disabled.

The $1,500,000 in funds allocated to communications through Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will expand our engagement and outreach. Funding will be allocated for greater use of television, radio, and other electronic media in bringing the Gospel message and our Catholic faith to all.

By combining the effectiveness of media outreach with the ease of Web-based access, we can create a highly effective evangelization effort that will excite Catholics and continue to help unify our Diocese.

These funds are intended to be used by the Diocese for expanded engagement and outreach by means of print, television, radio, and other electronic media in bringing the Catholic message to all.  Only grant applications that are recommended by the General Secretary will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!

The Mother Teresa Endowment Fund is used to help our neighbors who continue to struggle because of the lingering recession, unstable employment and economic uncertainty. The Fund provides emergency financial assistance to help pay, for example, utility bills, medications and food. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will set aside $2,000,000 for this endowment fund, which will provide approximately $100,000 annually in additional support to assist individuals and families in need.

The “Church Alive! Mother Teresa Endowment of Catholic Charities,” will be established in the Sharing in Faith TM, Our Catholic Legacy Foundation.  Because this gift is restricted to expand the services of Catholic Charities, the Foundation will make annual distributions from this Fund to Catholic Charities.  Catholic Charities will then distribute the funds in accordance with the above-stated purposes and with standards, policies and procedures of Catholic Charities.

No institutions in our region have a greater legacy of charity and love to expectant mothers in need than the Roselia Program supported by Catholic Charities. For more than 120 years, this pro-life outreach of the Church has served women in a variety of ways, most recently as a residence and center that provided counseling services and parenting education for homeless mothers over the age of eighteen. Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will establish a $2,500,000 Roselia Program Endowment Fund. This new fund will provide approximately $125,000 each year for services and classes in order to help single mothers find greater stability in their lives.

The “Church Alive! New Roselia Endowment of Catholic Charities,” will be established in the Sharing in Faith TM, Our Catholic Legacy Foundation.  Because this gift is restricted to extend the ministry of Catholic Charities, the Foundation will make annual distributions from this Fund to Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities will then distribute the funds in accordance with the above-stated purposes and with standards, policies and procedures of Catholic Charities.

The Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center was established in 2007 to provide free medical and dental care for people earning 200 percent or below of the poverty level who are not eligible for federal or state funded insurance programs and otherwise cannot afford employer-sponsored or private insurance.

Since opening, more than 10,000 patients representing over 25,000 medical and dental visits have received care from more than 150 volunteer physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, and other dedicated professionals at the Center’s location in downtown Pittsburgh.

Within five years of opening, increasing demand for the Center’s services led to the creation of ophthalmology and physical therapy suites and the addition of two medical exam rooms and dental operatories. To ensure continued care to the working uninsured, Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will allocate $1,500,000 to expand the facilities and service capability of the Free Health Care Center.

With the support of a full-time dentist working in conjunction with dental volunteers, the Center is able to see nearly 1,000 new patients every year. This position was fully funded by the BNY Mellon Charitable Fund through the end of 2012. A $1,000,000 endowment, which will provide $50,000 each year, is now required to meet the overwhelming dental needs of the uninsured in our community. The endowment will ensure that the dental position will remain funded and that no one will have to wait an extended period of time for quality dental care.

The Health Care Center, which receives no federal or state funding, helps people who otherwise would have to do without care. Health care reform is not expected to dent demand.

An endowment fund, the “Church Alive! Chair for Dental Services, in Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center,” will be established in the Sharing in Faith TM, Our Catholic Legacy Foundation for $1,000,000.  Because this gift is restricted for the above-stated purposes for Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center, the Foundation will make annual distributions from this Fund to Catholic Charities.  Catholic Charities will then use the funds in accordance with the above-stated purposes and with standards, policies and procedures of Catholic Charities.

A second distribution of $1,500,000 will support the above-stated capital expansion needs of Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center. Applications from Catholic Charities and the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center will be accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!

Thirty-seven hundred miles south of our Diocese, in the South American country of Peru lies the Diocese of Chimbote. Many of its citizens live in dire poverty. Nearly 50 years ago a Pittsburgh priest, Monsignor Jules Roos, responded to our Gospel call to serve the least of our sisters and brothers by establishing a tiny maternity hospital in Chimbote. Since then the people of our Diocese have generously followed his lead and have sustained that work.

Today the Social Works Center (Centro de Obras Sociales) is a regionally respected multi-service health and education facility with a maternity hospital, outpatient clinic, clinical laboratory, pharmacy and orphanage. The doctors and staff treat approximately 550 patients each day, deliver 300 babies every month, and visit the home-bound elderly and sick who are unable to get to the clinic. Nearly 90,000 babies have been born in the maternity hospital, Maternidad de Maria.

Our Campaign for The Church Alive! will provide $1,000,000 to create an endowment fund that will supplement such Pittsburgh-mission efforts. This mission fund will produce an annual distribution to be applied for diocesan outreach to missions, including the Pittsburgh-based Chimbote Foundation.

Grant applications must have the approval of the General Secretary before they are accepted for appropriate review by Our Campaign for the Church Alive!