Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,
More and more we seem to be challenged to assist our neighbors in their hour of need. Natural disasters and the economy have reeked havoc on our available resources. Yet as Christians, this is what we are called to do. Those who have been blessed and spared are called to help those less fortunate.

I wanted to thank all of you who continue to support the Bishop’s Services Appeal and the Centennial Campaign: Building Our Future Together. The monies given to these campaigns and the second collections that are taken up for special needs assist the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Lafayette to directly assist those most affected and in need.

At a recent priest convocation Deacon Jeff Trumps put together the following information to remind priests of “Who we are” as the Diocese of Lafayette. With his permission I wanted to share this information with you. We should indeed be proud of our Catholic Church, our Diocese, and our Parish for the work that we do – together.

“Who are we? Who is the Diocese of Lafayette? To be Scriptural, we are many parts, but together form one body. TOGETHER we are the body of Christ in Acadiana. We are the Diocese of Lafayette.

• We are 121 parishes, 29 missions and 32 schools
• We employ 2,000 full-time employees and 2,000 part-time employees with as many if not more volunteers offering service to our churches and schools
• Combined our income exceeds $100 million
• And we have insured assets of almost $1 billion (buildings valued at more than $850 million)

By any measure, we are among the 20 largest corporations in Acadiana!

• We operate a $100 million bank that pays above market interest on deposits and charges below market interest on loans
• Our Priest Pension plan pays out more than $1 million in benefits to 39 retired priests
• We have a healthcare program with crazy low premiums for all of our employees and extremely low deductibles and co-pays for our lay employees and our priests pay no deductibles or co-pays
• We educate more than 14,000 students in our schools, and
  1. If they were to attend public schools it would cost more than $500 million to construct the buildings alone not to mention the cost of educating those students
  2. And we minister to college students at two major universities
• We welcome the stranger through our migration office and provide targeted ministry to Hispanic, Vietnamese and Black Catholics
• We build strong marriages and families through our office efforts and those at our parishes, and when the marriages fail we provide an annulment process at no charge
• We try to build faith through our communication efforts using the Acadiana Catholic, Radio & Television, our website and social media and by supporting our parishes with divine worship resources
• We help the disadvantaged by providing more than 1,200 housing units in our HUD developments and by helping those who are deaf to express their faith and deal with day-to-day living
• We protect our children and vulnerable people through our Safe Environment office and our efforts, together creating a culture of awareness
• We provide for the future of the Church by educating seminarians for the priesthood and lay men for the permanent diaconate
• We are compliant and accountable to our constituents and are good stewards of the treasure entrusted to us.

Ours is a feel-good story and one we should be proud of…TOGETHER!”

God’s Blessings be with you,
Fr. David