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	Church Struggles to Raise Funds By Danielle Vandenbrink The Standard-Freeholder October 18, 2011 www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3336453 CORNWALL — Catholic bishops from across Canada expressed their frustration Monday with meeting a $25-million goal to help aboriginal victims of residential schools. During the first day of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops annual plenary assembly in Cornwall, about 90 bishops discussed the possibility of falling short on a portion of a residential school settlement backed by Catholic dioceses and other churches that operated native residential schools throughout the majority of the last century. Part of the tab included a $25-million "best-efforts" Moving Forward Together Campaign, with Catholic entities involved in the administering of residential schools partnering with aboriginal, business and community groups to raise as much of the goal as possible in five years. At the conference Monday, the bishops shared their concern with meeting the goal, saying that since the campaign started in 2009, the church has managed to raise $2.5 million. The church has pledged that money raised will go to support healing and educational programs for aboriginal communities in Canada, including for former residential school students and their families. Richard Smith, vice-president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton, said the struggle with raising the money stems from the reality of the global economic situation. "The best efforts dimension comes from the fact that we are doing this in really difficult economic times," he said. "Every bishop in the country wants to do whatever he can to support our aboriginal people, to support their healing and so on, but every bishop across the country at the same time is up against the wall financially with all the different things that he's got to accomplish in his own diocese." Because the money is raised in part from pew donations from parishioners, Smith said bishops are increasingly up against "donor fatigue," where people are overextended with donations. "This really is, I think, the major stumbling block that bishops across the country are running up against," he said. "It would be wonderful to raise $25 million, but I think the understanding is just make your best effort given the current economic climate that we find ourselves in." Beyond fundraising, Smith said the church has also initiated a Returning to Spirit initiative, which offers workshops for former students and staff who ran the schools. "The monies of the campaign are really secondary in the sense that their whole purpose is supporting and actually being with the people and healing them," Smith said. In 2007, the federal government formalized a $1.9-billion payout to compensate aboriginal people who were forced to attend residential schools, often enduring substandard living conditions and suffering physical and emotional abuse. There have also been numerous allegations of sexual abuse. Former residential school students were eligible for $10,000 for the first year they attended school, plus $3,000 for each additional year, through federal compensation called common experience payments. Although the payment let the government and churches off the hook from further liability — except for cases of sexual abuse and serious cases of physical abuse — the Corporation of Catholic Entities Party to the Indian Residential School Settlement was formed in 2006. The settlement includes raising funds for healing and reconciliation with aboriginal victims to the tune of $79 million in cash and in-kind community work and programs. * * * * * The opening day of the conference also included discussion around this year's theme, "new evangelization," which Smith described as finding a way for the Catholic faith to become more accessible to the public. "The core message of the gospel is always the same, but its got to be proclaimed in ever-changing circumstances," he said. Smith said the church now faces the challenge of harnessing new media to reach people. "A way of being out there, where the people are, especially for the young, using these technologies that are there to try and communicate," he said. Smith said the focus in the future will also be finding language that better relates to people, straying away from language steeped in rich theology. "In a society that is increasingly fractured, where relationships are broken, where people are experiencing betrayals and all the anguish and the hurt that goes with that...how do you, in the midst of that, proclaim in a language that's understandable, a message of hope?" The plenary assembly continues at the Nav Centre until Oct. 21. Contact: DVANDENBRINK@STANDARD-FREEHOLDER.COM
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