LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Thanks for nothing

Posted

To the Editor:

Oh, what a relief! I am finally able to thank the organizers of the 2008 Catholic Charity Fund Appeal to a degree greater than they are able to thank the many parishes, pastors, and chairmen who made exhaustive efforts to try to make this year’s appeal a success.

For several years my wife and I have pledged to the best of our ability a sacrificial offering that has been at times financially stressful. Why did we make the effort? Because the Catholic Charity Fund Appeal is a noble and worthwhile cause that assists the needy in our own diocese.

In addition, our sacrificial offering was our way of saying thanks to our pastor and parish fund appeal chairmen for their tireless efforts to ensure that our parish would raise the most money possible for the appeal. Though we were unable to offer our talents of time to canvass for the appeal, we surely would offer our treasure and make the best financial offering to help our parish make its assigned goal. And in so doing, our pastor and chairmen would receive the recognition they well deserved when the RI Catholic published the appeal’s results.

Oh, the disappointment on reading page 16 of the July 31 edition of the Rhode Island Catholic! Our parish failed to meet its assigned goal, though not by much.

For our punishment, the Appeal Organizers omitted the name of our parish, pastor, and chairmen from the “thank you” page. Of course, the title of the page was “2008 CCFA parishes over goal”, but the intent was certainly to thank publicly those chairmen who met their assigned goal while shaming (omitting) those who failed.

After reflecting somewhat on this I wonder if the Appeal Organizers are saying to those who donate sacrificially in underperforming parishes, “Thanks for nothing! Your pastor, your chairmen, and your donations are not respected. Feel free to lower your pledges next year. You don’t count!”

Thank you, Appeal Organizers; we just might take you up on your offer. As the old alka-seltzer commercial used to say, “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!”

Vin Coughlin

Pawtucket