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Jan and Bob Dilenschneider, Chair-couple of the 2009 Appeal -- “It is time to step up, give back, help others”. Read more...
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Giving to the Appeal:
Vitally Necessary
“TIMES ARE HARD, but that means it’s time to give more than ever.” (PHOTO BY JOHN GLOVER)
Article Appears in the February 21, 2009 Edition of the Fairfield County Catholic
BY JAN & BOB DILENSCHNEIDER
(Editor’s note: Jan and Bob Dilcenschneider, members of Saint John Parish in Darien, are serving as chair-couple of the 2009 Living Our Faith Annual Bishop’s Appeal)
Over the past month, we’ve met a dozen or more people – friends and associates – who’ve lost their jobs. They’ve
had to make a lot of hard decisions, and things will never be the same for them.
Beyond a doubt, these aren’t the kinds of hardships that trouble the person who has to go to the soup kitchen for a hot meal. They’re hardships of a different dimension for people accustomed to security, who now have to live off their savings and possibly face losing their homes.
They were well off, but now they have to start prioritizing what’s important. And despite their cutbacks, they’ve decided that giving to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal is important.
It’s more than important. It’s vitally necessary.
Step Forward
For the first time, many of us are experiencing chronic anxiety about the future. In all these years, we’ve never seen such a desperate situation, and all of us have to step forward.
One of our friends joked that we were named co-chairs of the 2009 Appeal at a time when most people have less money to contribute and we’re experiencing the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
But we look at it this way: We’re committed to this cause unlike any other, because even though it’s the worst possible time, it’s the time of greatest need – a time for all of us as Catholics to put what we say we believe into action.
There are 410,000 Catholics in Fairfield County, and we do a lot of good. The Appeal helps Catholic schools, Catholic Charities, soup kitchens, food pantries, religious education programs, and so much more.
Last year, Catholic Charities served 875,000 meals and provided 45,000 counseling sessions for families. This year, the need is immeasurably greater. The number of unemployed, poor, and homeless has increased. And families confronting the loss of a job and the loss of their homes are under greater stress than ever before.
Sensitized to Plight of the Needy
We like to think what all of us are experiencing has, to some degree, sensitized us to the plight of the poor and hungry. After all, deprivation and suffering either embitter us or ennoble us. Let’s hope the experience makes all of us more compassionate and caring to those in need. If we experience, even in some small degree, what the least of us endure every day, it will change us as human beings.
The moral to the story is this: Many of these people have come forward and intend to support the Bishop’s Appeal, and if they can support it without a steady income, anyone can. Most certainly, times are hard, but that means it’s time to give more than ever. When we have less, it’s time to give more.
We once knew a priest who grew up during the Great Depression, and he said that when a family was down on its luck, down to its last dollar, they usually gave it to someone worse off.
Why? Because they knew God, who will never be outdone in generosity, would reward that act of kindness immeasurably. The priest said that desperate act of giving never failed. Now it’s our turn.
(To learn more about the 2009 Annual Bishop’s Appeal and to make a secure online donation, visit www.bridgeportdiocese.com)
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