ANNUAL DIOCESAN APPEAL

My Dear Friends in Christ,

Through this year’s Annual Diocesan Appeal, “Spirit and Life,” we once again have an opportunity to manifest our love for our children, our families, our neighbors, our faith community and, especially this year, for priests and seminarians.

Your contributions enable us to support many diocesan and parish programs for youth ministry, marriage preparation, widowed and divorced Catholics, care for the elderly and dying, and welcoming new Catholics into our community of faith.

Christ said that His disciples will be identified by the love they have for one another: “for whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).

It is in the everyday work of the diocesan church that we keep people engaged, that we keep their faith alive. The Annual Diocesan Appeal makes many positive, faith-filled activities possible.

1. More than 300 ministers and lay volunteers who teach the faith to children and adults will gather for our annual Ministry Days.

2. The diocese will continue to support parish programs that reach out to our high school and college students and keep them actively engaged in their faith.

3. Four priests (three from Garzon Diocese in Columbia) will minister to our Hispanic brothers and sisters in the central and western counties of our Diocese. Today, they serve more than 2000 parishioners.

4. The diocese will educate, train and form ministers for the future. The Appeal will help support 11 college age seminarians, 2 seminarians in theology school, and the Institute for Lay Ministry with 24 students.

5. More than 1000 college age students attend weekend Mass and are engaged in the life of the church at our Catholic Newman Centers in Mankato and Winona.

The Annual Diocesan Appeal makes all of these programs possible. Last year, through the generosity of more than 10,000 Catholic households, the Diocese of Winona was able to follow the command of Jesus. With your help, with your gift to the 2011 Appeal, we can do so much more to make sure that the flame of our Catholic faith remains alive in the hearts of Catholics in southern Minnesota.