The Diocese of Phoenix’s historic Together Let Us Go Forth ~ Juntos Sigamos Adelante campaign officially came to a close March 31, after nearly nine years of impact.
The $100 million initiative, which launched in 2017 under the visionary leadership of Bishop Emeritus Thomas Olmsted, emphasized discipleship and evangelization through building, renovation, beatification and development projects across a myriad of parishes, schools and ministries within the nearly 44,000-square-mile diocese.
What started as a diocesan-wide study indicating the need for a new high school in the West Valley, soon turned into a full-fledged campaign, which carried the potential for a much broader impact.
“One of the big things [was] listening to our pastors because they’re the ones who really know what’s happening,” said Bishop Olmsted, who served as the Bishop of Phoenix from 2003-2022. “And then also, we’re blessed to have a good Catholic school board who had a good sense of what’s happening in Catholic education … as we listened to them, we knew this [would become] more than just a Catholic school.”
The listening bore fruit.
As the campaign was developed, eight case components, or areas of focus, came to the forefront: direct parish support, Newman Centers, Catholic school growth and development, Francis Mercy Fund, St. John Paul II Catholic High School, ministry support, seminary support and tuition assistance.
Bishop Olmsted invited all 94 parishes and 24 missions in the diocese to participate — extending a particular invitation to each parishioner and family to discern the sacrificial gift the Lord may be calling them to give. Over the length of the campaign, the $100 million goal was met through the generosity of the faithful and a partnership with the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.
Abundant growth and development
Every parish and mission opted in, and 35-percent of funds raised went directly back to the parish’s needs, such as the new roof, pews, bathrooms and gathering space at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glendale, Ariz., and the improved and expanded Gordon Hall at St. Gregory Parish in Phoenix.
“The pastor, along with their pastoral counsels and financial council members, came up with their own case components,” said Fr. Greg Schlarb, who served as the vicar of stewardship on the project. “And that could be anything from school renovations to new programming for the parishes to beautification of churches. Even bringing together a new building for Eucharistic adoration as seen at Immaculate Heart of Mary [in Phoenix].”
New AC-units, revamped gymnasiums, additional meeting spaces, tuition assistance and even entirely new buildings — like the 76,000 square-foot, three-story structure with a basement at St. Thomas the Apostle in Phoenix, a project that the Together campaign played a foundational role in — were some of the case components seen across many of the diocese’s 31 Catholic preschools, 29 Catholic elementary schools and seven Catholic high schools.
Thanks to the Together Let Us Go Forth campaign, among those seven high schools now stands St. John Paul II High School in Avondale, Ariz. — the once-hoped-for new school in the West Valley. Run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia of Nashville, the high school opened in 2018. The 23 acres of land include an academic building, gymnasium, football stadium, baseball and softball fields, a theater and room for the growth of up to 1,000 students. The facility has also been used for the post activities of large-scale diocesan events including the Installation Mass of Bishop Dolan in August 2023 and the Ordination Mass of Bishop Peter Dai Bui in February 2026.
Flourishing vocations
Another major component of the campaign was support for the diocese’s three Newman Centers — All Saints Catholic Newman Center at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Holy Spirit Newman Center at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix and Holy Trinity Newman Center at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz. — which collectively support more than 1,175 students annually through faith formation, community events and personal accompaniment.
Bishop Olmsted gives credit to the priests who are leading the Newman Centers, the lay people who support them and the response of the students.
“Our pastors really get new students when they arrive in the fall engaged right away. And as a result of that, we’re getting vocations from there,” said Bishop Olmsted. “Not only to marriage, but also to priesthood. So, [the Newman Centers] are becoming great blessings for the whole diocese but meeting the needs of our college-age students at the same time.”
Additional fostered vocations are feeding into the Diocese of Phoenix’s Nazareth Seminary, an unexpected, yet major case component of the Together Let Us Go Forth campaign.
“[The seminary] wasn’t really part of the initial thinking. However, as we began to see it grow, the interest in seminarians was growing as well,” continued Bishop Olmsted.
The vision began with Nazareth House, which was established in 2019 in Phoenix. The local one-to-two-year formation program was developed for young seminarians to begin discernment before they were sent to Colorado, Texas or Michigan to continue their priestly formation. The program expanded into the full-blown Nazareth Seminary, a household model of formation and education that allows full priestly discernment to take place locally.
“Not only is this a great program for our guys as we are moving away from an institutional model to more of a homestyle model — where seminarians and their formators live, pray,
study, cook and care for the home together,” said Bishop John Dolan, the current Bishop of Phoenix, “but a local seminary also allows our guys to really get to know the cultures, parishes and people they may one day serve as priests.”
The Nazareth Seminary program is still being built, and the final formation house is expected to open in fall 2026. In 2025, there were a record number of 55 seminarians for the Diocese of Phoenix, and in 2030 the priests being ordained will have received their full formation locally.
In giving we receive
The campaign’s impact expanded even further through the Francis Mercy Fund case component, which focused on supporting substantial, local charities that share God’s love and mercy by serving the poor, the marginalized and the elderly.
Fr. Schlarb said the idea first came about when listening to priests.
“[We heard] the need to, as we always tell kids … ‘spend a little, give a little, save a little.’ And so, it was really important that as we embarked on this campaign, there [was] a charitable arm to it as well,” said Fr. Schlarb.
Bishop Olmsted named this aspect of the campaign the Francis Mercy Fund after Pope Francis. In describing the purpose of this case component, Bishop Olmsted reflected on Padre Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit priest who founded dozens of missions in Arizona, and how he evangelized to particular groups who in turn went on to share the good news with others.
In the same way, Bishop Olmsted hand-picked The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVPD), Catholic Charities Community Services and AllThrive 365 (formerly known as the Foundation for Senior Living) as recipients of substantial campaign funds to carry out the work of bringing the good news through healing, comfort and hope in intentional ways throughout the diocese. The funds were used specifically for major, planned projects such as the completion of SVDP’s Ozanam Manor, a transitional shelter for veterans, seniors and adults with disabilities.
A lasting impact
The timing of the Together Let Us Go Forth campaign was nothing short of Providential.
When it began as a seed of an idea in 2017, there were 1.1 million Catholics in the Diocese of Phoenix. As the campaign came to full fruition in March 2026, more than 2 million Catholics call the diocese home.
“These were little seeds that were planted, and then the wonderful gifts and prayers that people brought to the campaign … We’re benefitting from this,” said Bishop Dolan, as he spoke about Bishop Olmsted’s actions over the years of the campaign. “I can’t tell you how incredible this campaign has been for our diocese.”
He went on to applaud Bishop Olmsted for his approach in this bold endeavor.
“One of the things that I think is unique and very powerful about that campaign is that it wasn’t just one and done. In essence, [Bishop Olmsted was] able to create, from my perspective, a culture of philanthropy with engagement as the center point,” he said.
Bishop Dolan is continuing Bishop Olmsted’s legacy of evangelization through his seven-year pastoral plan, TILMA. He hopes to continue fostering the seeds of discipleship and evangelization that were planted in a particular way in the Diocese of Phoenix nearly nine years ago.
“It didn’t matter how much people were able to give,” continued Bishop Dolan. “What mattered was that they knew they felt engaged and that they had a place in the Church and the mission of the Church … I believe that [Bishop Olmsted] set out to engage people and invite them into this mission, and I think they responded so beautifully. It’s been fantastic.”
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Watch a special episode of “The Catholic Sun” below, where Bishop John Dolan, Bishop Emeritus Thomas Olmsted and Fr. Greg Schlarb delve into the highlights of the historic Together Let Us Go Forth ~ Juntos Sigamos Adelante campaign:
