Archdiocese optimistic for $10M charities appeal

In hopeful defiance of the struggling economy - and evidence that Catholics are not opening their wallets in ways they once did - the Archdiocese of Philadelphia launched its 2012 Catholic Charities Appeal with a goal of raising $10 million.

"We care for 200,000 people every year," Bishop John J. McIntyre told a news conference at Mercy Hospice near 13th and Spruce Streets in Center City.

The hospice is one of 80 agencies and services funded by the appeal, which McIntyre described as "the single largest fund-raising effort" the archdiocese undertakes each year.

The goal is a leap beyond last year's target of $8 million - reached only because of a single gift of more than $2 million, according to Daniel V. Dougherty, director of administration for the church's Office for Stewardship and Development.

Once the charity of choice for many Catholics in the five-county archdiocese, the appeal has seen its donor base shrink by about 40,000 since 2003, Dougherty said later.

Theories for the decline include the struggling economy, the clergy sex abuse scandals, and a younger generation of Catholics unused to philanthropic giving, he said, "but we don't know for sure."

The mood was upbeat at the news conference, however, which sought in 30 minutes to convey the range and depth of services that Catholic Charities delivers to children, the elderly, the sick and the homeless.

"Ten million dollars may sound ambitious," said McIntyre, "but we believe it's very much possible."

McIntyre introduced a woman who had kicked a 30-year drug habit - thanks, he said, to Catholic social service agencies - and who was now earning a college degree.

He also introduced a young woman who found "warmth and a place to sleep" at an archdiocesan shelter after she lost her job; a 17-year-old youth who, through an archdiocesan intervention program, was back in school after an arrest; a mentally retarded man in an assisted living program; and a 79-year-old man who turns regularly to a archdiocesan senior center in Norris Square for meals, health services and recreation.

Catholic social service agencies "help us with every service we provide," said Vanessa Garrett Harley, deputy commissioner of the children and youth division of Philadelphia's Department of Human Services (DHS).

DHS staff has consistently found Catholic agencies among the most responsive in the city when it came to placing children in need of shelter, "even at 1, 2 o'clock in the morning," she said.

The agencies scored "extremely high" in performance evaluations, Garrett Harley said. "This appeal is very important."

Also stepping to the microphone were Fran Dunphy, head coach of Temple University's men's basketball program, and Phil Martelli, head coach of St. Joseph's University basketball.

"Six hundred children in after-school programs," said Martelli. "Five hundred seniors. A thousand beds for people who don't have a place to sleep. You see all these numbers, and then you see the faces."

He gestured to the five recipients introduced earlier. "These faces dare you not to get involved."