-
Bishop Joe Vasquez's letter:"We have much to be thankful for in the Diocese of Austin. Our gracious Lord has blessed us abundantly and, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we have grown together, evolving into the giving and caring community of faith we are today.
Through our pastoral plan, Encounter that Leads to Transformation, we have experienced Jesus Christ in a more intentional way, and developed a roadmap for a vibrant and secure future for this diocese. In this spirit, I am excited to launch a capital and endowment campaign so we may continue to encounter Christ in our liturgies and ministries, and to provide support to our clergy and each other.
The Encountering Christ campaign will fulfill the mission of our diocese as outlined in the Pastoral Plan. The campaign goal of $85 million will support our clergy at all stages of their vocation, strengthen our parishes, large and small, and expand our services to our brothers and sisters most in need. The campaign will also ensure we form a band of “missionary disciples,” in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (the Joy of the Gospel). We will direct funds to Catholic schools and parish faith formation programs, campus and young adult ministries, and leadership development for Hispanic and other emerging ethnic communities. Some of these funds will be used immediately to meet the needs of our faithful today, while other funds will be placed in endowments to cultivate the needs of tomorrow"
At Our Lady of Wisdom, we went over goal and are at 151% of our original goal of $165,000. With the strengthening the parish portion of our campiagn, we plan to rennovate the bathrooms, increase security, and upgrade the sound system. We are currently working on other long term solutions for parking and facility expansion with the help of the Diocese. The team of volunteers are meeting and visiting friends, but if you would like to learn more about the campaign, please click on the link below:
https://www.encounteringchristcampaign.org/
This month, Our Lady of Wisdom, was featured in the Diocese monthly update on Encountering Christ, as we have upgraded security and swapped out doors, and upgraded bathrooms, and some sound equipment.
Our Lady of Wisdom Update (4/7/2020)
Our parish goal was $165,000 which we surpassed during our active phase of the campaign with $251,460 dollars in pledges. Currently, $98,975 has been collected towards this total pledge amount. We are in year two of a five year pledge collection program. This Capital Campaign will have a lasting impact on the Diocese of Austin and Our Lady of Wisdom. We have replaced doors, improved the sound system, upgraded the bathrooms and have a little over $9,000 in our DIAL account for future projects. We continue to get 30% of each gift collectd by the Diocese from our community and will upgrade to 70% of each gift when we surpass our parish goal of $165,000.
We will update you again next quarter on the progress of Our Lady of Wisdom's portion of the Austin Diocese's Encountering Christ Capital Campaign.