Improving finances highlight Catholic Community Foundation meeting

Photo caption: Jeffrey Stumpf, right, archdiocesan chief financial officer, speaks at the Catholic Community Foundation’s annual meeting in Indianapolis on Oct. 25. Seated are, from left, Toby McClamroch, a member of St. Luke Parish in Indianapolis and president of the CCF’s board of trustees, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein and Joseph Therber, executive director of the archdiocesan Secretariat for Stewardship and Development.

By Sean Gallagher

(Listen)

For the second year in a row, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis has ended a fiscal year with a budget surplus.

Jeffrey Stumpf, archdiocesan chief financial officer, announced the $614,000 surplus for the 2005-06 fiscal year that ended on June 30 during the annual meeting of the Catholic Community Foundation (CCF) on Oct. 25 in Indianapolis.

Approximately 150 people from across the archdiocese attended the meeting, which included Mass celebrated by Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein and concelebrated by several diocesan priests.

This is the second consecutive year that the archdiocese has been in the black after running deficits dating back to the 1996-97 fiscal year.

Stumpf said he expects a similar budget surplus for the current fiscal year. However, he said that while the budget surplus is noteworthy, it still represents only 1.6 percent of the overall archdiocesan budget of $39 million.

Stumpf shared other good news regarding the 323 endowments managed by the CCF that support shared ministries and ministries in archdiocesan parishes, schools and agencies.

The combined value of the endowments for the 2005-06 fiscal year totaled $131 million, an increase of nearly $2 million. The return on the investment of these endowments was 7.5 percent, Stumpf said.

The CCF also distributed more than $6 million to various ministries during the 2005-06 fiscal year, an increase of more than $1 million from the previous year.

For the first time, this total exceeded the amount raised in the same year by the United Catholic Appeal.

Stumpf also gave an update on the Legacy for Our Mission: For Our Children and the Future campaign.

As of Sept. 30, $29.5 million had been pledged toward the campaign’s $100 million goal. Only 15 percent of archdiocesan parishes have participated in the campaign to date, he noted.

The funds raised in the Legacy for Our Mission campaign will benefit parishes and the archdiocese’s shared ministries, home missions, the formation of seminarians and support of retired priests.

Although there was much good news to share, Stumpf noted that several challenges remain where the fiscal stability of the archdiocese is concerned.

Included among these are increasing health care costs, construction costs, school operating costs, parish operating deficits and the need to continue generating surpluses in the archdiocesan budget to recover approximately $10 million of previously accrued deficits.

Stumpf said that these challenges are being addressed through the introduction of alternative health care insurance plans that feature high deductibles and health savings accounts. The archdiocese also refinanced a 1996 municipal bond at a lower interest rate last spring.

Stumpf also said that parish Sunday and holy day collections are staying ahead of inflation and that support for the Called to Serve: Parish Stewardship and United Catholic Appeal remains strong.

The CCF annual meeting took place just 10 days after the Oct. 15 canonization of St. Theodora Guérin.

In his remarks at the meeting, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein put the news of the current financial state of the archdiocese and how this relates to the carrying out of its ministries in the context of the example of Indiana’s first saint.

“Finances are important in carrying out our Church’s mission,” the archbishop said, “but we should not put money first. We’re mindful that our mission flows from Christ and it is nourished through prayer.

“No one knew this better than St. Theodora Guérin.”

Archbishop Buechlein also noted that while the challenges facing the Church in central and southern Indiana today are great, they pale in comparison to those faced by St. Theodora.

But, following her example, he said we can see the challenges before us as an opportunity to increase our faith.

“Like St. Theodora, we can put our complete trust in God and we can remain focused in prayer as we continue to foster a stewardship way of life for our local Church,” the archbishop said.

“Like St. Theodora, we can learn how to have a good mind for business and to raise money that will be put to the fullest benefit, especially in service to the poor.” †