On Sunday, May 3rd, the Diocese of Brooklyn, together with the Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens, will officially announce the launch of Generations of Faith, a comprehensive fundraising initiative to meet the spiritual and material needs of the diocese.
Continuing the unprecedented generosity of the 1996 Alive in Hope campaign, this 2015-2016 effort aims to raise a minimum of $80 million. The campaign will be conducted in the 186 parishes of Brooklyn and Queens, inviting the more than 1.5 million Catholics in the diocese to participate.
Generations of Faith, named after the numerous generations of Catholics raised and living in the many tightknit neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, will focus on three main goals: to strengthen the parishes of Brooklyn and Queens (50%), serve and care for senior priests (37.5%), and foster the formation of the Catholic faith for future generations (12.5%).
The pilot phase of the campaign, which just concluded, has already succeeded in raising $25 million. The goal is to raise the remainder by fall of 2016.
“The early success we have experienced in the Generations of Faith pilot parishes is a true sign of our parishioners’ commitment to their communities, their faith and the continued mission of the Church in Brooklyn and Queens,” said the Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn. “The pastors of these parishes have my immense admiration and gratitude. Their spirited response and leadership have allowed us to surpass our goals, while setting an incredible example for the remaining parishes. The heart of our Diocese is our people. From our youth, to our life-long parishioners and our new parishioners, to our religious and to our clergy, we are deeply blessed to have you as part of this campaign. Each of you ensures the vital presence of our communities of faith for generations to come.”
“We have been blessed with an extraordinary outpouring of love and support from the people of Brooklyn and Queens coming together both in and out of the pews to celebrate and further the work of our Church. The mission of this campaign, in supporting our youth, our priests and our parishes, has elicited such incredible response from our pastors and our lay people,” said Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, Vicar for Development for the Diocese of Brooklyn, who is spearheading the campaign efforts with the Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens.
Bishop DiMarzio and Monsignor Gigantiello will be featured this Sunday, May 3rd, on In the Arena, the Catholic radio talk show of the diocesan cable network New Evangelization Television (NET TV) accompanied by pastors of parishes that were part of the pilot phase, to talk about the Generations of Faith campaign and its goals. The show will air at 8 a.m. on WOR 710AM radio and at 8 p.m. on NET TV, channel 97 on Time Warner Cable and channel 30 on Cablevision.
The Diocese of Brooklyn, the eighth largest diocese in United States and the only entirely urban diocese in the Nation, serves the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The combined population of the boroughs stands at 4.8 million residents, of which more than 1.5 million identify themselves as Catholics.
More information about the Generations of Faith campaign can be found at www.catholicfoundationbq.org or click here.