By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Love is the theme for this year’s ABCD drive: What will your legacy of love be? Will you help a seminarian become a priest? Will you help feed a needy family? Will you help a child get an education? Will you help a mother bring her child into the world?
“It is not enough to say we are Christians: We must live the faith, not only with our words, but with our actions,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski writes in his appeal letter for the 2023 Archbishop’s Charities and Development campaign. “I invite you to join me in giving the gift of hope — a genuine act of love — by opening your hearts in support of the ABCD and donating today. Every gift makes a difference and changes lives.”
The ABCD campaign began in the parishes at the end of January and concludes at the end of February. Donations to ABCD come in the form of pledges paid in installments, beginning in March and concluding in February of the following year. The ABCD appeal is made once a year, and unlike the weekly collections at Masses, which stay in the local parish, ABCD funds go to the archdiocese, to fund programs and services that are beyond the scope of individual churches.
ABCD supports the many ministries of the Church in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. Donations to ABCD support Catholic Charities, religious education programs, Catholic schools, seminarians and priests, and marriage preparation programs.
A pie chart in this year’s brochure breaks down how the dollars were spent last fiscal year, based on the $11.8 million previously collected:
- 28%, or $3,351,896 million, went to the education and formation of seminarians, clergy, deacons and religious
- 27%, or $3,331,858 million, went to ministries, evangelization and faith formation
- 44%, or $5,316,246 million, went to social ministries and assisting parishes and people in poor communities.
“Jesus left a beautiful legacy of love — a unifying love” that Catholics are called to share with others, Archbishop Wenski says in this year’s ABCD video. “When you give to the ABCD, you help the Church bring the gift of God’s love to those most in need — above and beyond what happens in your own parish. So I ask you, what will your legacy of love be? Please join me in sharing the gift of God’s love by making a donation to the ABCD today.”
