The Annual Catholic Services Appeal provides critical funding for more than 70 ministries active across The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Your gift will have a broad and lasting impact for thousands in our local communities of faith: https://adw.org/ways-to-give/annual-appeal/

Monsignor Parent's Appeal Reflection adapted from his 2025 Appeal Announcement Sunday homily
So did we give enough to the 2024 Appeal? Each of us can only answer that question for ourselves, but allow me to try to answer it for the parish as a whole. Our parish goal for 2024 was $204,430. Parish goals for the Appeal are set by the Archdiocese and reflect both the size and material wealth of each parish. Goals are intended to challenge us, and they do. For example, in 2024, ¾ of the 144 parishes in our Archdiocese fell short of their goals.

You may recall that in recent years I’ve made a little sport of competing with other parishes close to where we are on the Appeal. Two years ago we ended up giving a little more than Mother Seton, which made us the 10th highest contributing parish in the Archdiocese of Washington. Last year those Jesuits at Holy Trinity gave a little more than us, but we still rose to number 8 overall.

Recall our 2024 goal was $204,430. Our final contribution was $304, 185 – the fifth highest contributing parish in the Archdiocese of Washington. And since we receive a rebate of 50 cents for every dollar that exceeds our goal, we received almost $50,000 back from the Appeal. 

So did we give enough as a parish? Yes, we did, and I thank you for your generosity. Thank you for helping fund important Catholic services and charities for people throughout our region. You make my job as a pastor easy, so please simply continue to be generous as you have been so generous in the past. All parish goals for 2025 will be the same as 2024.

If you would like to know more about the Catholic Services Appeal, information is readily available on the archdiocesan website and in the brochures available in church.