Catholic Community Foundation allows Catholics to help ‘for infinity’

Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin welcomes the congregation to Mass at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis prior to a Catholic Community Foundation meeting and dinner on Oct. 20. Concelebrating with the archbishop are Msgr. Frederick Easton, left, Msgr. William Stumpf, Father Patrick Beidelman, Dominican Father Raymond-Marie Bryce, Father Todd Riebe, Father Robert Robeson and Father John Hall. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

As Ruth Buening of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Indianapolis took on the role of helping parish families plan funeral Masses, she began to notice something.

“I soon learned that most families had made little to no preparation for Mass planning or even what legacy they wanted to leave,” she said.

“That is what really spurred me to get my own planning in order so that my own loved ones would not have to guess as to what I wanted, as well as to relieve them of additional stress.”

So Buening helped establish two endowment funds through the archdiocese’s Catholic Community Foundation (CCF), one to assist archdiocesan seminarians and priests in attending the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and another that provides help to her parish, the Indianapolis Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad.

Buening was one of approximately 120 people who attended in a Mass and dinner for CCF board members and others on Oct. 20 to celebrate and promote the works of the CCF, which allows members of the Church in central and southern Indiana to set up scholarships, trusts and endowments to assist their chosen Catholic school, parish, organization or ministry in the archdiocese.

“You can’t take [your money] with you, so you might as well make use of it to benefit other people,” said Buening. “[The benefits] go on for infinity.”

In his homily at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis before the dinner, Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin echoed that sentiment.

“The Gospel calls us to preparedness,” he said. “We never know what’s going to happen. We need to be ready for anything at any time. We do not know the time or the hour or the day when our Master will come.”

To make sure their favored cause is taken care of financially in the future, Catholics across central and southern Indiana have created more than 450 endowments and funds through the CCF, totaling more than $165 million in the last 28 years. Between July 2014 and June 2015, 17 new endowments and funds were established, including the two that Buening created.

Ellen Brunner, director of the CCF, shared with the event participants the goals of her staff.

“We want to encourage gifts to existing funds and gifts to establish new funds, and to encourage legacy planning to support ministries throughout central and southern Indiana,” she explained.

Brunner outlined the many educational opportunities planned for the upcoming year to accomplish these goals. The plans include educational talks around the archdiocese, webinars, online information and videos of people sharing their stories of how they utilized the foundation. All of the online resources are available by logging on to www.archindy.org/ccf.

Archbishop Tobin shared a joke to demonstrate the saying, “You can’t take it with you.”

He spoke of a man who told his wife that when he died, he wanted all his money buried with him.

At his funeral, the wife placed in the casket a check for all he was worth.

“And the woman told him, ‘Feel free to cash it whenever you want,’ ” the archbishop concluded.

He went on to speak of the good being done in the archdiocese—and the ongoing need for help.

“We’ve done great work in educating our seminarians and helping our retired priests,” he said. “I could tell you about the 170,000 [people] who are helped every year by Catholic Charites.

“[But] while God has blessed us and we’re able to do so much good because of generous people, the mission continues.

“Spread the word about the CCF, which helps us to be the hands, feet and voice of Jesus in central and southern Indiana.”
 

(For more information about the Catholic Community Foundation, its funds and endowments, forms of planned giving and how to utilize the foundation, log on to www.archindy.org/ccf. A copy of CCF’s annual report is also available on its website.) †