UCA gifts ‘make a difference beyond what you can imagine,’ archbishop says

Archbishop Charles C. Thompson addresses those gathered for a United Catholic Appeal dinner event in the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center in Indianapolis on Oct. 16. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

Sometimes, a blessing comes along that changes the course of a person’s future, allowing them to become the full person God intended them to be.

Perhaps that blessing empowers a single mother raising two boys—including one with autism—to find independent housing and a good job.

Perhaps it enables a man with a call to the priesthood or diaconate to pursue that vocation without the stress of paying for the costly formation.

In the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, each of these cases is a reality. And each case involves a common blessing: every donor to the archdiocese’s annual United Catholic Appeal (UCA).

“All the ministries supported by the appeal make it possible for us to address the needs and concerns of the life and dignity of so many throughout the Church in central and southern Indiana,” said Archbishop Charles C. Thompson during a dinner event at the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center in Indianapolis on Oct. 16.

Across the street at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, he was the principal celebrant during a liturgy prior to the dinner.

‘It is how we go forth with the mission’

Archbishop Thompson began his homily noting the theme of this year’s United Catholic Appeal: Go Forth.

“We go forth not on our own merit. That’s what Paul is saying to the Romans in the first reading” from Romans 3:21-30, he said. “We go forth with what God does through us and in us, taking Christ to others and leading others to Christ … rooted in the Eucharist.”

Archbishop Thompson shared about an opportunity he had to meet and speak privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican during a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops-sponsored pilgrimage the archbishop led to Rome on Sept. 23-Oct. 2 for the Jubilee for Catechists.

During the meeting, the pope asked the archbishop to tell him about the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

“I got to share with him about the faith here, and the vibrancy in central and southern Indiana, and the different things we do in our ministries and services … ,” Archbishop Thompson said.

He noted that such works are only possible because of funds raised through the United Catholic Appeal. (Related story: Nov. 8-9 is intention weekend for UCA, which aids seminarians, retired priests, Catholic Charities)

“[It] is the source that enables us to carry out the ministries and the services and the witness of our faith throughout central and southern Indiana,” he explained. “It is how we carry out the good news of Jesus Christ. It is how we go forth with the mission.”

The Church is “missionary by nature,” Archbishop Thompson said. He noted further that the Church “doesn’t have a mission so much as the mission has a Church, the mission of Jesus. We are the Church, and we have a co-responsibility to carry out that mission.”

Part of that mission is to care for those who struggle to meet their needs, the archbishop said.

“There are so many needs,” he added. “And our ministries are tending to those needs of bringing about healing, reconciliation, bringing about housing, and caring for people in so many different ways.”

By supporting the UCA, “Each one of you makes a difference beyond what you can imagine,” he said.

“Like Paul says to the Romans, each of us have been given the grace to make a difference. Go forth.”

‘Not just about raising funds”

After the dinner, Jolinda Moore spoke to the gathering about the importance of the UCA to the functioning of the Church in central and southern Indiana.

“We gather tonight to celebrate something much bigger than any one of us—our shared mission as one Church and our call to ‘go forth’ in joy to embody that mission,” said Moore, executive director of the archdiocesan Office of Stewardship and Development.

She said the UCA is “not just about raising funds.

“It’s about living our faith. It’s about empowering the ministries of the archdiocese to reach out to those in need, to lift up families, strengthen parishes, and ensure that our Catholic schools continue to form young minds and hearts in the faith.”

UCA funds support those and other ministries that no parish or deanery alone could sustain.

“Your generosity allows us to provide for our most vulnerable through Catholic Charities, support vocations and … sustains the Church’s work in ways that touch lives of people that you may never meet, but who feel the impact of your generosity every day,” said Moore.

After Moore, Archbishop Thompson addressed those gathered. He, too, emphasized the many ways the archdiocesan ministries funded by the UCA impact people throughout central and southern Indiana, regardless of their faith.

“No matter what you contribute financially, your support for the United Catholic Appeal and the ministries that serve so many throughout the archdiocese is greatly appreciated,” he said, adding that “every dollar raised … goes directly to the ministries.”

He noted that these ministries have touched “thousands of lives, … and many more will continue to be served thanks to your generosity.”

‘Exemplary of God’s promise’

The event was special in a unique way for Helen Disney. She received a personal blessing from Archbishop Thompson when he learned it was her 80th birthday.

More important to her, though, is the hope she finds in what the UCA allows the archdiocese to accomplish.

“The funds are going to these people who really need it, whether they’re seminarians, retired priests, children to be educated, immigrants,” said the member of Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Danville.

“And from what I read in The Criterion, there is a lot of personal interaction with those people—it’s not just handing out money. That’s very, very important.”

Deacon Michael Slinger is proof of such hands-on assistance. Ordained in 2012 after four years of UCA-funded diaconate formation, he serves at Catholic Charities’ Holy Family Shelter in Indianapolis as one of his diaconal ministries of charity.

Many of the shelter’s temporary residents “are able to just completely turn their lives around because they got a little support to get them through the hard spots—some training, some tools to work with when they go out,” said the member of Holy Spirit Parish in Indianapolis. “I see the ones that go out and make good of their lives after that, and that gives me a lot of hope.”

Supporting Catholic Charities is one of the reasons Maxx Hagan of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis said he contributes to the UCA.

“It’s these funds that enable our people to really make a difference in our community,” he said.

Hagan noted he also appreciates the support UCA funds provide for Catholic education and for the formation of future priests.

Several seminarians from Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis were present for the event.

The UCA is “exemplary of God’s promise to the Church that he will never let it go astray,” said first-year seminarian Paul Weckenbrock, a member of All Saints Parish in Dearborn County. “To have that revelation through the United Catholic Appeal is very encouraging.”

His classmate, Max Ecoff of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis, agreed, and expressed gratitude for the UCA making it possible for him to pursue a call to the priesthood, a vocation he said has been “in the back of my head all my life.”

Ecoff said he’s drawn by “the idea of being able to bring people closer to God, bring them to heaven. It’s a huge responsibility and Catholics depend on priests daily.

“I just really want to help people get to heaven.”
 

(For more information on the United Catholic Appeal, go to unitedcatholicappeal.org or call the Office of Stewardship and Development at 317-236-1415.) †