Stewardship effort is underway throughout diocese

Intermountain Catholic

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Beverly Dusserre speaks about stewardship in her own life at Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Midvale. She spoke at all the English Masses on the weekend of Oct. 29-30; six different people gave testimony at the parish's various Spanish Masses to kick off the stewardship effort. IC photo/Marie Mischel

SALT LAKE CITY — From Brigham City to Cedar City, parishes throughout the Diocese of Salt Lake City have responded to Bishop John C. Wester’s call for a renewed stewardship effort.

"What I hope it accomplishes is that all Catholics in the Diocese of Salt Lake City would embrace stewardship as a way of life," Bishop Wester said. "Stewardship is actually a spirituality, which means that it defines the way we relate to God and to one another. You can sum up stewardship by the one word: gratitude – gratitude for the gifts that God has given us and our desire to express our gratitude by using those gifts for the good of others, which in turn gives glory to God, the giver of the gift."

Oct. 30 was the official start date for the stewardship effort, but many parishes began preparations months ago.

"We have a really, really strong stewardship committee that Fr. Mike Winterer formed before I even got here," said Monsignor Robert Bussen, who began as pastor of Christ the King Parish in Cedar City in August.

In October, Msgr. Bussen gave a homily about stewardship in his own life. At the next two weekend Masses, various parishioners spoke about their own stewardship journeys. That was followed by a presentation on all the parish’s ministries, and a fair at which parishioners had the chance to sign up to volunteer their time and talents for a ministry. The parish finance committee also gave information on the parish’s finances, Msgr. Bussen said.

One of the challenges was that Christ the King Parish has active English-speaking and Spanish-speaking congregations, as well as students from the Newman Center.

"We actually did the same program for everybody, but we adapted it," Msgr. Bussen said. For example, many of the Latino ministries are different from those in the English congregation. "For the Newman Center students … our point was that stewardship isn’t just for their parents, it’s for them. They’ve grown up now and they need to still be good stewards."

For the parish’s six missions, Msgr. Bussen gave stewardship presentations, and parishioners will be asked to fill out time and talent cards. "We’re not having parishioners speak, or ministry fairs," he said. "It just didn’t seem to fit for the needs of the missions."

At Saint Henry Parish in Brigham City and Santa Ana Mission in Tremonton, Jesuit Father Patrick Reuse took a slightly different approach. For the past few months, the parish bulletin has contained information in English and Spanish about stewardship. The information comes from books Fr. Reuse obtained at the Southwest Liturgical Conference in February. Then, this past weekend, his homily was about stewardship.

Next Sunday, the parish will host a ministry fair, he said, while at the Mass, in place of a homily, he will talk about the different ministries in the place of a homily. The following week the deacon’s homily will be on stewardship itself, he added.

While stewardship is a three-legged stool of time, talent and treasure, "I’m not thinking about the money part at all," Fr. Reuse said. "It’s really not about money. When you get people involved, the money takes care of itself."

Still another approach was taken at Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Midvale. Last Sunday, different parishioners spoke in place of a homily by the priest or deacon.

"Each of them will give a personal testimony about God working in their life, especially in the sense of responding to God out of thankfulness and gratefulness, what it means to be a good steward," said Father Martin Diaz, pastor, who also gave each family a booklet on stewardship to educate them about it and encourage them to pray about it.

Next Sunday, the parish will host a ministry fair "to make people aware of the various opportunities for using their talents for the building up of the church. In the church, everyone has a place," Fr. Martin said.

In addition to offering their talents to a ministry, people will be asked to note their commitment of time, such as attending daily Mass, praying the rosary or visiting the sick, Fr. Martin said. They also will be asked to write down their financial commitment to the parish.

"What I found in both the English and the Spanish communities was a great eagerness for stewardship," Fr. Martin said. "It just made so much sense to people that this was the way to we ought to be going in terms of measuring our time, knowing that people are already giving lots of time in many different places and also with our talents."

Not only will every parish approach stewardship differently, but so will every person, Bishop Wester said. "Everyone is going to have a different response. We are doing it together, but it’s a personal response," he said. "The widow’s mite comes into play here: Someone might give $2, someone else might give $2 million. Frankly, in terms of the gift, the amount is different, but the intentionality, the grace, the beauty of it is the same. As a matter of fact, the $2 might even be more of a gift than the $2 million if the $2 is given by a multi-billionaire and the $2 is given by someone who has only $2.10."