DDD celebrates 50 years and 10-fold growth

Friday, Nov. 04, 2016

SANDY — Catholics actively involved in their parish’s Diocesan Development Drive campaign received thanks at a celebration dinner Oct. 28 at Saint Thomas More Parish.

The DDD is a yearly fundraiser that provides for the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s 30 ministries, from seminarians to communications, rural mission outreach to religious education.

“The DDD and the work that it supports is an extremely valuable and meaningful witness to the Catholic Church in the state of Utah,” said John Kaloudis, the DDD director for the diocese. He thanked those attending dinner “for your diligence and your hard work for helping us achieve another successful year of DDD.” 

The overall amount of pledges has exceeded the 2016 goal, which was $2.8 million, and 35 parishes already have either met or exceeded their individual goal, Kaloudis said. 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the DDD. For most of those years, Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald “has been intimately involved with the development, the promotion and the expansion of the DDD,” choosing the theme each year, directing where the funds would be spent, hiring directors, encouraging participation from clergy, and doing strategic planning, Kaloudis said as he introduced the vicar general emeritus as the speaker for the evening.  

Msgr. Fitzgerald gave a brief history of the DDD’s history, which had its roots in the late 1940s. In those years, Bishop Duane G. Hunt assigned Auxiliary Bishop Leo J. Steck, and later, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Federal, to “travel around the country raising funds,” Msgr. Fitzgerald said. “Bishop Federal used to talk about his tin-cup ministry – he said he would go around shaking a tin cup.”

When Bishop Federal was appointed the sixth Bishop of Salt Lake City in 1960, “he made a terrible decision – he asked a couple of us [priests] to go begging,” Msgr. Fitzgerald said, recalling that his first appeal was in Troy, N.Y. The church there was as large as the Cathedral of the Madeleine and jammed with people, and Msgr. Fitzgerald preached at all seven of the Sunday Masses, raising $3,000. 

A couple of years later, Monsignor John J. Hedderman told Bishop Federal about the success of a program called the archbishop’s fund in a California parish. Bishop Federal was reluctant to try something similar in Utah, but eventually agreed, Msgr. Fitzgerald said.

In 1966, Bishop Federal and Monsignor Mark O. Benvegnu, the first DDD chairman, “traveled the state, explaining what this drive was going to be and to try to encourage people to participate,” Msgr. Fitzgerald said. Then, on the first Sunday of Lent, parishioners were to visit every Catholic family in their area and ask for 1 percent of the family’s income in cash, he said; the next night the money was brought to the cathedral, where the amounts were tallied on a big chalkboard.

“The goal of the first drive was $100,000. The first drive brought $240,000 – over double,” Msgr. Fitzgerald said. “Bishop Federal was astounded. It was a moment of tremendous importance to the Catholics of Utah. We never thought we could do much on our own – we were so used to begging.”

In the past 50 years, the Catholic population of Utah has grown from about 43,000 Catholics to more than 300,000, Msgr. Fitzgerald said; to accommodate them, the DDD has helped pay for land and church construction in every one of the state’s 29 counties. The DDD also has been used for matching grants, such as the $50,000 given last year by Catholic Extension for the renovation of Saint Christopher Parish in Kanab. 

In his closing remarks, Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, diocesan administrator, said that he loves the DDD because “stewardship allows us to recognize in a spirituality that we’ve been gifted – it’s all gift, and so all of a sudden we can relax and open our hands and share the gifts that God has given us, with our own parish, first of all, but then with the wider Church and the diocese – in fact, with the Church Universal.”