USCCB Collections Plan - sample letters

In yesterday’s post, I raised the issue of the many, many national special collections that the USCCB and our local Bishops subject us to, and I explained how and why we tradition-minded Catholics can be heard by our own Bishop and the USCCB about the importance of spreading access to the traditional Latin Mass. I hope you’ll spread the word (not for promoting my blog…I could care less…but for promoting our common cause).

In that post I went so far as to outline a strategy that readers can use part or all of, and I’ve already received a couple of comments, and a couple of email requests, for sample letters to use in the campaign. So see below, and remember that what matters here isn’t getting into an argument, but in helping the larger Church and getting your Bishop and the USCCB National Collections Office to start thinking about helping our fellow Catholics who are attached to tradition in less-fortunate parts of the world.

Sample Letters:
For the Parish Collection:
(remember to skip this one on subsequent collections if your parish returns it to you the first time. We don’t need to tick off our own pastors and collection counters)

This special collection contribution is to be used solely for the [support of traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolates in Central and Eastern Europe]. Please forward it to the diocese and the USCCB subject to that restriction. If you are unable to do so, please return it to me.

For the Diocesan Letter
(send this one every time unless you are specifically told not to by the Bishop)

JMJ
Date/Traditional Feastday

Most Rev N. [Cardinal] N.
Bishop/ Archbishop of X
Chancery Address
Chancery City, State/Province

Your Excellency (Your Grace, Your Emminence):

Enclosed please find a check in the amount of $____ which I am sending for the diocesan special collection for [the Church in Central and Eastern Europe], which I was unable to contribute in our parish collection last Sunday. I am mindful of our duty to support the wider Church beyond our own parishes and communities, and I want to do so in a way that directs my contribution to an important apostolate that is often neglected by the larger Church.

Therefore I am directing that my contribution be used solely for the support of an a traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolate in Central and Eastern Europe, and for no other purpose.

Please note this purpose as you forward my contribution to the appropriate recipient, in accordance with Canon 1267. If you cannot comply with my these directions, please return the check to me.

You are in my prayers, and in those of my family.

Sincerely Yours,

K.C. Curmudgeon

For the USCCB special collections office
(each special collection has its own director...imagine that bureaucracy. These directors are priests...some even Jesuits. If you want to send one directly to that collection's director, locate the name at this web page. Otherwise, send it to the head honcho below, Mr. Markey)

JMJ
Date/Traditional Feastday

Mr. Patrick Markey
Executive Director, Office of National Collections
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20017

Dear Mr. Markey:

Enclosed please find a check in the amount of $____ which I am sending for the national special collection for [the Church in Central and Eastern Europe], which I neither my parish nor my diocesan collections office was able to accept. I am mindful of our duty to support the wider Church beyond our own parishes and communities, and I want to do so in a way that directs my contribution to an important apostolate that is often neglected by the larger Church.

Therefore I am directing that my contribution be used solely for the support of an a traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolate in Central and Eastern Europe, and for no other purpose.

Please be sure that my contribution reaches an appropriate recipient, in accordance with Canon 1267. If you cannot comply with these directions, please return the check to me as soon as possible.

Sincerely Yours,

K.C. Curmudgeon

Finally, if the USCCB bureaucracy has fails you, go direct:

(Find an organization with offices here in the US and apostolates in the appropriate place if you can, especially if you want the tax deduction. I’ll make some suggestions in another post.)

JMJ
Date/Traditional Feastday

Contact Name
Organization Name
Address
City State ZIP

Dear X:

Enclosed please find a check in the amount of $____ which I am sending for the support of one of your organization’s apostolates in Central or Eastern Europe. [Here mention the specific apostolate if you know of it]

During the national special collection for Central and Eastern Europe in February, I attempted to make a contribution targeted to traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolates there, but neither my diocesan Bishop nor the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Collections Office was willing to accept my contribution.

Therefore, I am sending it to you, knowing that you have apostolates in [______ ]. Please contact me if you have any difficulty in honoring my directives.

We are grateful for the work your institute does here in the US and in Central and Eastern Europe, and you and your priests are in our prayers.

Sincerely Yours,

K.C. Curmudgeon

cc: Your local bishop & the USCCB Collections Person you contacted above.