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Diocesan Communicator - October 2022
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October Diocesan Communicator
No. 10/2021
Note: Please contact John Fee at 800-562-9745 ext. 129 for questions/problems regarding receipt of the Diocesan Communicator. The Communicator is available on the Diocesan website at www.dioceseofmarquette.org.
Inside
Office of the Bishop
White Mass, Program and Reception
Diocesan Day of Consecrated Life
Teaching the Faith
Weekly Weekend Mass Attendance
Department of Evangelization & Education
RCIA Marital Status Questionnaire
Communication Services
Proposition 3 Materials Available
Diocesan Website Update
Financial Services
Parish & School Secretary/Bookkeeper Workshop
2022 Parish Governance Report
Reminder: Collection Remittance Deadlines
$5,000 Maximum for Parish/School Raffles
Parish Use of Voter Guides
403(b) Retirement Plan Maximum Contributions
Department of Stewardship & Development
Deadline to Register for #iGiveCatholic 2022 is November 2nd
Stewardship E-News
Parish Endowments
Your Gift Matters
Bulletin Announcements
White Mass, Program and Reception
Addenda
Addendum #1 – RCIA Candidates’ Marital Status
Addendum #2 – Protect Life Vote No on Proposal 3
Addendum #3 – An Explainer on the Dangers of Proposal 3
Addendum #4 - Parish Governance Report 2022
Addendum #5 - Bishop Doerfler’s 2020 Voter Guide
Addendum #6 – UPCF Promo Flyer
Addendum #7 - Complete October 2022 Diocesan Communicator (old-style format)
IMPORTANT DATES & DEADLINES- 10-25-2022 Parish & School Secretary/Bookkeeper Workshop (Administration & Finance)
- 10-17-2022 Open Enrollment Begins (Administration & Finance)
- 11-04-2022 Open Enrollment Deadline (Administration & Finance)
OFFICE OF THE BISHOP
Bishop John F. Doerfler
WHITE MASS, PROGRAM AND RECEPTION
Bishop John Doerfler will celebrate a White Mass, which will be followed by a program and reception on October 18, 2022, at OSF St. Francis Hospital Chapel, 3401 Ludington St. in Escanaba. All Healthcare Professionals are welcome to attend. The Mass will be followed by a Witness to Faith presented by Dr. William Hook, a former Air Force pilot, now physician and father of eight children. A bulletin announcement is included below.
The Healthcare Professional Mass is known by some as the “White Mass” because of the white lab coats traditionally worn by the Healthcare Profession. The White Mass dates back to the late 1800s and is held often near October 18, the feast day of St. Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of physicians and surgeons.
DIOCESAN DAY OF CONSECRATED LIFE, NOVEMBER 13TH
"Our brothers and sisters in Christ living consecrated lives make great contributions to our society, our diocese, our parishes and our parishioners. I welcome you and your parishioners to join me in celebrating the lives of these men and women who serve in many capacities and have dedicated their lives to contemplative prayer, teaching in our schools, taking care of the poor and the sick and bringing compassion and the love of Christ to those shunned by society.
Your observance on November 13, 2022, of this Diocesan Day of Consecrated Life in your parish(es) may include prayers for consecrated life, a focus on consecrated life in your homily, promoting vocations to consecrated life and honoring women religious and others who live a consecrated life who serve in your parish(es). Prayers of the faithful may be found at: https://www.cathdal.org/ConsecratedLifePrayersoftheFaithful.pdf.
TEACHING THE FAITH
The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars has made available to clergy a website feature periodic newsletter, free of charge. Each monthly installment of Teaching the Faith makes use of the scriptural readings for a given Sunday in order to provide clergy with assistance in preparing homilies on doctrinal topics, difficult and perhaps controversial subjects of current importance, and themes in Catholic prayer and spirituality. The website may be found at: https://www.catholicscholars.org/TTFlist.php.
WEEKLY WEEDEND MASS ATTENDANCE
Please continue to input your weekly weekend Mass attendance counts (for all Vigil and Sunday Masses combined) each week. The weekly Mass Attendance counts will give us a baseline for our Mass attendance as we work together to increase Mass attendance through evangelization efforts discussed in Bishop John’s Pastoral Letter on Evangelization, entitled: “Transforming Fire: A New Pentecost to form Spirit-Filled Evangelizers.” If you have any questions, please contact the Office of the Bishop at (906)-227-9115.
DEPARTMENT OF EVANGELIZATION & EDUCATION
Mark Salisbury
RCIA CANDIDATES' MARITAL STATUS
A reminder to Pastors, Pastoral Coordinators and the RCIA team of the importance of determining the marriage situation of the RCIA candidate and the candidate’s spouse which may require a declaration of nullity before he/she may enter the Church. If the candidate or the candidate’s current spouse has been married previously, an investigation into these marriages must be made. A questionnaire that may be helpful to you is found in ADDENDUM # 1 to this communicator.
COMMUNICATION SERVICES
John Fee
PROPOSITION 3 MATERIALS AVAILABLE
Along with the materials concerning Proposition 3 to the state’s constitution that were emailed out, we have additional materials available.
Bishop John Doerfler has a column in the Oct. 7 issue of The U.P. Catholic. In it he explains some of the perils of Proposal 3 to Michigan's state constitution and urges voters to say NO.. See ADDENDUM #2 for a PDF of the column. Read and share it online at https://www.upcatholic.org/UP-Catholic-10072022-e-Edition/3/. Watch and share (including embedding into your websites) a video version of it at https://youtu.be/lP6GDX4Os5Y.
Michigan Catholic Conference has a public website with many materials you may use including in print, social media and on your websites. Visit https://www.micatholic.org/advocacy/election-2022/. Among the items included is ADDENDUM #3 that details many far-reaching problems with the language used in the proposed amendment.
NEW DIOCESAN WEBSITE ONLINE SOON
The new diocesan website will, God willing, be online by the end of the month. Once it goes live, the website team will continue to make tweaks to improve it. We are still open to hearing from you!
Those affected most will be parishes that use the diocesan website to host bulletins. We will have to use a third-party service. If your parish is one of these, please contact John Fee at [email protected] ASAP so we can work this out soon.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
TIMOTHY THOMAS
PARISH & SCHOOL SECRETARY/BOOKKEEPER WORKSHOP
The Workshop is THIS MONTH, Tuesday, October 25th from 9:00 am – 3:30 pm and this year’s theme is Halloween. Invitations have been sent out, so please let Jamie know if you didn’t receive one. In person attendees will be entered in a raffle for multiple prizes. The place will be decorated with Halloween-themed stuff and even some of the presenters will incorporate the spooktacular fun. You are encouraged to wear an orange or black shirt. The workshop is being held at St. Peter Cathedral, 311 W. Baraga Ave., Marquette. Please contact Jamie Feldhusen, at 906-227-9101 or [email protected], if you have any questions. We hope to see you there!
2022 PARISH GOVERNANCE REPORT
The Governance Report was due to the Diocese on September 30, 2022. If your parish has not submitted a 2022 report yet, please send your Parish Governance Report to the Diocese, Attn: Irene McCauley or [email protected]. This report is available on the Diocesan website http://dioceseofmarquette.org/forms and has been included as ADDENDUM #4. Please contact Irene McCauley with any questions at [email protected] or 1-800-562-9745, ext. 135.
REMINDER: COLLECTION REMITTANCE DEADLINES
Please remember to submit proceeds from diocesan/special collections held in 2022. Your attention to this issue helps the Diocese ensure that parishioner donations are transferred to individual organizations promptly for maximum impact. Please contact Irene McCauley with questions regarding parish remittance deadlines.
Parishes held the World Church Collection on June 12, 2022, to support the Catholic Relief Services Overseas Fund, Holy Land & National Communications, and Peter's Pence causes. Proceeds from this collection were due by July 31, 2022.
Parishes held the National Church Collection on August 14, 2022, to support the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, National Retirement Fund for Religious, and Catholic University causes. Proceeds from this collection were due by September 30, 2022.
$5,000 MAXIMUM FOR PARISH/SCHOOL RAFFLES
The IRS requires tax-exempt organizations to withhold 25% of raffle winnings over $5,000 and report this amount on Form W-2G. Parishes and schools are advised to limit raffle winnings to no more than $5,000 to avoid tax liability. Federal reporting requirements apply to cash winnings and noncash prizes whose value exceeds $5,000. If you are interested in holding a small raffle for your parish or school, please visit the State of Michigan charitable gaming website at www.michigan.gov/cg/ for more information.
PARISH USE OF VOTER GUIDES
The Internal Revenue Code prohibits charitable organizations, including churches, from participating or intervening in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for political office. Permissible activities include the distribution of unbiased voter guides. Please refer to Bishop Doerfler's Voter Guide under ADDENDUM #5 when preparing to distribute parish voter guides for the upcoming election. This document is also available on the Diocesan website under https://www.dioceseofmarquette.org/images/files/VoterGuide2020-complete.pdf.
403(B) RETIREMENT PLAN MAXIMUM CONSTRIBUTIONS
Please be aware the maximum contribution per individual is $20,500 unless the employee is age 50 or over. Members over 50 years of age are allowed an additional "catch-up" contribution of $6,500. Since there still are several months left in 2022, it is a good time to evaluate your contributions to your 403(b) plan. Are you maximizing the amount you can contribute? Are you sure you will not exceed the maximum contribution amount by year-end? If you have questions, please feel free to contact Irene at [email protected] or 800-562-9745, Ext. 135.
DEPARTMENT OF STEWARDSHIP & DEVELOPMENT
Rob Taylor
DEADLINE TO REGISTER FOR #IGIVECATHOLIC 2022 IS NOVEMBER 2ND
Click here to register your organization for #iGiveCatholic 2022 or contact Ella at [email protected] assistance! Parishes must register by November 2nd.
STEWARDHIP E-NEWS
Click here to see the latest issue. Invite your parishioners to subscribe, use this link: https://dioceseofmarquette.flocknote.com/Stewardship/notes. We do not share subscriber emails outside of our organization.
PARISH ENDOWMENTS
Parish endowments enhance ministry and provide opportunity for parishioners to support the parish forever. See ADDENDUM # 6- UPCF for a quick snapshot of the cumulative value of endowment growth and benefits. Use this handout as a bulletin insert or to start the discussion at your next Parish Finance Council meeting!
YOUR GIFT MATTERS
Link the diocesan Planned Giving website on your own parish website. New content is provided quarterly. Here is the latest:
BULLETIN ANNOUNCEMENTS
WHITE MASS, PROGRAM AND RECEPTION
Bishop John Doerfler will celebrate a White Mass, which will be followed by a program and reception on October 18, 2022, at OSF St. Francis Hospital Chapel, 3401 Ludington St. in Escanaba. All Healthcare Professionals are welcome to attend. The Mass will be followed by a Witness to Faith presented by Dr. William Hook, a former Air Force pilot, now physician and father of eight children.
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