Congratulations!
For the first time in a number of years, San Pedro has met and exceeded our 2025 Catholic Faith Appeal goal. Thank you so much for your dedicated and generous support, and congratulations on this achievement as a whole Parish community. Your response as a Parish community signals both your confidence and trust in our pastoral leadership and your own understanding how the CFA is meant to function.
The annual CFA goal is linked to the annual offertory of each Parish offertory. Funds received in excess of our annual goal, up to 25% of that goal, come back to San Pedro unassessed. That means they won’t add to next year’s CFA goal. So the CFA can function like a mini campaign each year. Our regular offertory needs to sustain the day-to-day operation of the parish. But many vital services and ministries are beyond the scope of any single parish to accomplish, and the CFA is the means of supporting those ministries here in the Diocese of Venice. San Pedro benefits directly from many of these services, alongside the other Catholic parishes and institutions around Southwest Florida.
Proclaiming Jesus Christ and his saving power is the essential reason for any of these organizations and services. This is the mission of the Church, and our support of the CFA enables the Gospel to reach so many through ministry to youth and elderly, families in need, engaged and married couples, the sick, prisoners, travelers, young adults, priestly formation and vocation work…and more.
San Pedro is also in the midst of our Reason for Our Hope capital campaign. While that campaign is underway, the Diocese gives a significant discount off of our CFA goal, which is in essence a contribution from the Diocese to our RFOH campaign.
For 2025 San Pedro’s CFA goal was $231,000. As of January 17, your donations to the CFA totaled $304,000. So we even exceeded 25% of our goal (that is, $57,750 this year). Those funds come directly back to San Pedro, and we will use them to pay for painting of the exterior of the church and repairing fascia and soffit. We received a bid last year of about $40,000 for this work, but had not allocated funds for this purpose.
We want you to be informed, so that you can choose how you want to allocate the support you have decided to dedicate to the church. The point is not to make you give more, but to give as you judge it best serves the needs of San Pedro, the Diocese of Venice, and the mission of the church.
The Gospel tells us that Jesus and his disciples were supported by the generosity of those who followed him – and that generosity continues to live on in your hearts. As does the saving mission of Jesus Christ in the heart of his Church.
-Fr. Tom
