Stewardship

Stewardship is a complete lifestyle, a life of total accountability and responsibility acknowledging God as Creator and Owner of all. Stewards, as disciples of Jesus Christ, see themselves as caretakers of all God's gifts. Gratitude for these gifts is expressed in prayer, worship, offering, and action by eagerly sharing these gifts out of love of God and one another.

What is a tithe?

Simply stated, a tithe is the tenth part of personal income set apart as an offering to God or works of mercy. Tithing is an obligation for the support of the Church.

A Lifetime of Charity

We are all called upon to be charitable people. Our continuing mission is to help others in need, while maintaining our own facilities on a daily basis. Please be generous.

Faith In Action

The life of a Christian models the life of Jesus. We recognize that in offering our time, talent and treasure to our parish, community and diocesan church we take steps in our spiritual conversion and growth. This is our faith in action. We acknowledge that we belong to God and that everything we have comes from Him. We trust in God and place our life in His hands. We unite in giving our gifts back - together with the gifts of other members of our Parish Family, we can reach out to others in need. "As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace." 1 Peter 4:10

How is the money used?

Social Services provides assistance to persons in need through grants made to Catholic Charities and direct contributions to local, national and international agencies. Babies are placed in loving homes; people are comforted by counselling programs; young women receive support and encouragement through their pregnancies; new entrants to the U.S.A. are assisted with immigration services.

Catholic Education and Formation provides direct assistance to Catholic schools and centers, religious education, campus ministry, youth ministry, "family life" and "respect life." Many parishes count on the formation of their adult leaders, catechists and ongoing teacher formation from the services provided by your financial gift.

Emergency Services Money from "special collections" has allowed the Bishop to provide trucks to carry water and other supplies to "Hurricane Katrina" evacuees. In the past, more than $500,000 was advanced to those stricken by the tsunami in Asia, prior to locally held collections, allowing for a swift response from the people of the Diocese of St. Petersburg.

Ministries and Apostolates provides assistance to the following parish-based ministries and services: The Pastoral Center Offices coordinate and implement various pastoral plans for the entire Diocese. They include various ethnic programs for Catholics (Black, Haitian, Hispanic, Vietnamese, Korean, Polish, Creole, Korean, Philipino, Lithuanian, English/Anglo and others): spiritual programs; prison ministry; evangelization; ecumenical and interreligious affairs; our radio station (WBMV/WLMR) and outreach to the homebound; our diocesan newspaper; and the Office of Worship.

Clergy, Seminarian and Religious Development provides ongoing programs of education and formation for priests, seminarians, deacons and religious women and men already serving in the Diocese, plus assistance to retired priests.

Parochial Services provides direct assistance to parishes and schools for such activities as accounting, Human Resources, real estate planning, construction management, stewardship, and financial administration involving the operation of the Savings and Loan Program.