2025 Catholic Faith Appeal
What is it? How Does the CFA benefit San Pedro?
Each year Parishes in the Diocese of Venice (DOV) have a responsibility to contribute to the Catholic Faith Appeal. The CFA funds the services and programs provided by the Diocese of Venice that support local parishes and other Diocesan programs.
Here at San Pedro, we have directly benefited over the past year from DOV services in our religious education program for children, marriage preparation and youth ministry. We have also relied on the Diocese of Venice for administrative support that is essential to our parish staff, to the security of both our grounds and our technology, and our ongoing construction and facility management. The Diocese also works on our behalf in regard to insurance and safety, helping us prepare for and respond to emergencies as they arise.
If we had to provide all these services on our own, San Pedro would have to pay at least one-and-a-half to two times the amount of our annual CFA assessment.
The Diocese provides many other services beyond the scope of any individual parish, such as Marriage preparation programs and retreats, the annual Anniversary Mass for couples, ordinations of new priests and deacons for the Diocese, the Rite of Election for OCIA, and the annual Youth Conference. These and many other services benefit San Pedro and every parish throughout the Diocese.
Each parish’s contribution is assessed based on its qualifying gross income, the majority of which comes by our Weekly Offertory collection. Contributions to the CFA are not assessed – that means they do not increase next year’s CFA assessment. If a parish does not meet its CFA goal through direct – that is, unassessed – contributions, the shortfall must be paid from assessed Parish funds. So it makes good sense for us to meet – and even exceed – our annual CFA goal, while maintaining our regular operating budget.
A CFA contribution is similar to a tax-exempt investment, which is excluded from federal tax calculation. Furthermore, if we exceed our annual goal, those excess funds are returned to the Parish, unassessed, in the same way a federal tax refund is not included in next year’s taxable income. Imagine what further projects we could pursue here at San Pedro with those contributions!
In summary, the annual Catholic Faith Appeal funds services that are essential to the life and mission of our parish. While contributions to the CFA do not immediately pay our regular operating expenses, they allow us to keep those in-house expenses in a sustainable range for our parish community.
