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CDA sets sights on future while celebrating its past leadership
By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
December 20, 2007
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted announced a new goal and introduced the co-chairs for the 2008 Charity and Development Appeal last month.
Steve and Denise Zabilski, a husband and wife team held in high esteem throughout the community, will offer leadership and a personal example to Catholics across the diocese to support the CDA through both prayer and financial support. This year’s $10.5 million goal will go toward supporting the more than 70 charitable organizations that help the unborn, assist people in crisis, affirm vocations and strengthen families.
Fr. Bud Pelletier, vicar of stewardship for the diocese, made the announcement during an appreciation Mass and dinner event Nov. 29 at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. The event honored the 2007 Shepherd’s Circle donors and celebrated important milestones in CDA history.
More than 250 Catholics make up the CDA’s Shepherd’s Circle, which recognizes people or families who donated at least $5,000 this year.
As co-chairs for the upcoming Charity and Development Appeal, the Zabilskis will serve as leaders for volunteers and the appeal’s public face.
Steve Zabilski is the executive director of the Phoenix Society of St. Vincent de Paul and serves as a trustee for The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. Denise is actively involved with her children’s education, serves as vice president of the board of directors of Veritas Preparatory Academy, and supports Steve in his work.
The Zabilskis know $10.5 million is a lofty goal, but the couple expects prayer to carry them through. And Fr. Pelletier knows the CDA appeal goes beyond numbers.
“That goal is so much more than a dollar figure,” Fr. Pelletier said. “This CDA goal means that people throughout our community will receive the services — the outreach on behalf of Catholics throughout our diocese reaching out in material ways to touch their lives in a spiritual way, to touch their lives with the love of God.”
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted celebrated Mass with the Shepherd’s Circle donors.
“The Charity and Development Appeal allows us to accomplish things together that we could never do individually,” the bishop said. “It draws us beyond our own interests. It helps us to do what St. Paul says: put the interests of others ahead of your own.”
During the dinner, Fr. Bud Pelletier recognized 63 Catholics who took St. Paul’s message to heart in 1994. That’s when they became charter members of the CDA’s Shepherd’s Circle by donating at least $5,000 to the appeal.
Fr. Pelletier said their financial support is one way of reaching out in charitable ways like Pope Benedict XVI described in his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est: “The Church is God’s family in the world. In this family no one ought to go without the necessities of life.”
Bishop Olmsted also honored Msgr. John McMahon, who chaired the first Charity and Development Appeal in 1970. Msgr. McMahon, an Irish immigrant, said he felt blessed and honored that the Holy Spirit guided him to Phoenix. He welcomed Steve Zabilski as the co-chair for the 2008 appeal.
Guiding donors through the inaugural CDA was his first task. He inspired Phoenix Catholics to pledge $845,231 that supported work throughout the community. Since that time, the CDA has raised $180,931,118.
Funds from the CDA have nearly always increased to meet the needs of the dozens of groups it serves. When Msgr. McMahon was part of the allocations committee in 1979, however, 54 agencies requesting funding assistance were denied more than $500,000 in grants because funding was unavailable.
“May it continue to grow and grow so that the needs of our community will always be filled,” Msgr. McMahon said of the annual appeal.
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