Catholics in the Perth archdiocese have donated more than $7.5 million – an average of more than $1 million a year – to missionary work around the globe since the Australian bishops’ last ad limina visit to Rome six years ago.
The figures are contained in a report by Catholic Mission director Francis Leong on missionary cooperation in the archdiocese, which Archbishop Barry Hickey has taken to Rome as part of his ad limina report to the Holy Father.
The ad limina (“to the threshold”) visits are required about every five years for heads of dioceses. They include personal meetings for each bishop with the Pope and meetings with various Vatican dicasteries and congregations.
Between 2004 and 2010 the amount of money donated in the Perth archdiocese to the Church’s global missionary effort rose steadily; the annual totals were made up of three appeals mounted by Catholic Mission annually.
The main appeal, for the propagation of the faith, raised the lion’s share: an average annual figure of $720,479 totalling $5,043,355.
A separate annual appeal for the Holy Childhood Association, the Church’s main missionary effort to raise children’s awareness of the faith, totalled $1,830,577 over the seven years, rising from $174,456 in 2004 to $372,039 in 2010.
Of this figure, students in Perth Catholic schools donated an average figure of $28,204, peaking in 2006 at $40,008 but dropping steadily since then to $20,321 in 2010.
The annual “Peter’s Pence” appeal for the upkeep of the Holy See in Rome has more than doubled from $32,395 in 2004 to $73,831 in 2010; all up, Catholics donated $434,958 over the seven-year period.
Mr Leong said he was deeply grateful for the “tremendous” generosity of the archdiocese in giving to Church missionary activities.
“As someone who has come back home to Perth from eight years of missionary service overseas I’m totally moved and touched by the generosity and commitment of ordinary parishioners in our archdiocese,” he said.
He said it was “gobsmacking to see the amount raised through our parishes, the majority of which are not wealthy – but people just give. People know how important the missions are.
“It’s a sign of the strength of faith that’s out there. I have no doubt it has the effect of helping to strengthen and sustain the faith in other countries, far away,” he said.
Since 2008 Catholic Mission has also raised money for disaster relief, giving a total of $271,886 over three years to foreign counterparts for distribution according to the pastoral needs of disaster-hit areas.
The report also reveals there has been a steady increase in overseas lay missionary work; in recent years about a dozen people have taken the decision to serve as lay missionaries abroad for extended periods.