Home loans, credit cards OK'd to fund a new church
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A Roman Catholic church that serves 3,000 families in Nashua is accepting home equity loans and credit card debits to cover pledges for a new sanctuary."It's one of those things. It's legal, but you wonder if it's moral," said Dick O'Leary, a parishioner and building committee member at Immaculate Conception, where the $3.75-million fund-raising campaign began in October.
O'Leary isn't alone in his thinking.
"This is not in keeping with what sacrificial giving is and what sacrificial giving should be," said Jim O'Keeffe of Genesis Associates Ltd. in Milwaukee, which organizes capital campaigns for churches and nonprofit organizations.
But the pastor, the Rev. Mark Gagne, said that historically people mortgaged their homes to help churches buy property or build. He also talked of the financial benefits to the donor. Those who itemize expenses on tax returns often can claim deductions for interest paid on the loan.
Gagne said the idea came from executive committee brainstorming "on how to develop revenue and making available all kinds of options." He said options also include stock donations or inclusion of the parish in personal investment plans.
O'Keeffe said credit cards are becoming common currency for tithes and other forms of giving, but he fears people who can't afford to make donations any other way will feel pressured to take out the loans.
"Is it because they have no other means of making their goals?" he asked. "Because if it is, that isn't sacrificial giving. Sacrificial giving is when someone looks at their income and what they would be capable of giving."
University survey targets good works in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The University of Pennsylvania is undertaking a survey of all religious congregations in the city for a detailed look at "faith communities" and their good works.
Organizers of the Program for the Study of Organized Religion and Social Work say it is the first such study.
"This is not simply a survey of Christian institutions but of every church, mosque, temple and synagogue in Philadelphia," project director Rodney Rogers said.
Penn sociologist Ram Cnaan said it would be "a major piece of work . . . the largest and richest database of its kind." But, he added, finding every little church, mosque and temple in the city is a major challenge "because there is simply no master list."
In the first few months, the team has identified 2,000 religious groups, large and small. But researchers said there could be as many as 3,500.
The project, to be completed by the end of next year, is supported by a $250,000 grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Rogers said it is important because the federal and state governments are cutting back on welfare and other aid for the poor and calling on religious, charitable and volunteer organizations to help fill the gap.
A much smaller Penn survey two years ago of 113 congregations in six cities found, among other things, that 80 percent of the beneficiaries of religious-based social services were children.
Priest becomes a fixture among deer-hunting mates
ROSEAU, Minn. (AP) -- Five former schoolmates at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Argyle in northwestern Minnesota have been hunting together since 1957.
In 1982, they pooled their money, bought land and built a hunting cabin. Then they invited one of their former priests to come to camp to say Mass.
Father Henry Carriere, a former deer hunter who had transferred to nearby Roseau, has been a seasonal fixture ever since.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, the tradition was repeated.
In the waning light, the men dressed in their finest deer-camp flannel for Mass under the towering pines in Beltrami Island State Forest.
"I always tell (Carriere) to shorten the sermon," joked hunter Gary Landreville of New Ulm.
After the Mass, the hunters sat down to a feast of shrimp, ruffed grouse and a venison-pork roast stew.
Said Carriere, who lives in Badger: "I look forward to it every year . . . It feels good just to be out there."