In 1959 Bishop James Navagh began the Diocesan Development Fund presently known as the Bishop’s Fund Appeal. He surveyed the needs of the Church of the Diocese of Ogdensburg. He saw the need for a new building for Wadhams Hall Seminary College and the accreditation of the seminary as a four-year liberal arts college.
In 1969, a significant change took place. The annual appeal of the Bishop’s Fund changed from projects or the building of structures, to programs or serving the needs of the people through programs and services.
The Bishop’s Fund Appeal provides funds to eighteen agencies.
These agencies are: (please click on the department name to navigate to their web site)
Fr. Douglas J. Lucia, Director. Your generosity to the Bishop’s Fund provides the financial assistance needed to aid candidates for the ministerial priesthood for the Diocese of Ogdensburg in pursuit of answering God’s call for their lives. Your contribution directly assists in paying for the education and formation of men who feel the call to serve the people of the North Country as ordained priests. The cost to the Diocese for this essential service now averages $ 30,000 per year per seminarian. The Director of Seminarians is the liaison between the Bishop and the Diocesan seminarians, and the Diocese’s contact person with the Seminaries where our men study. He also arranges for summer pastoral assignments and is responsible overall for ensuring that they are prepared for the reception of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Rev. James Seymour, Director. The life of the Church in the North Country requires that some priests be assigned for graduate studies after ordination. In the past, men have pursued graduate degrees in sacramental theology, scripture, moral theology, Canon Law, counseling and philosophy, among other areas of concentration. Along with the celebration of the sacraments, preaching and teaching are among the primary functions of the priest and therefore the education of the clergy has been and remains a high priority within the Church of the North Country.
Rev. Scott Fobare, Director. Helps establish programs and conferences that support the on-going formation and education of the priests of the Diocese. Each year a Presbyterial Assembly is held to deal with current topics of importance to the priests in the priestly life and ministry. A Pastoral conference is held each year to touch on topics pertinent to pastoral life and is open to all people, priests, deacons, religious and lay involved in parish work. The Committee also set up Days of Prayer in Advent and Lent for priests and deacons. The Committee also provides information on Retreats, Study Weeks and Sabbatical programs for priests. A periodic conference is held on the subject of Priestly Retirement to help priests plan for their future role/ministry. Currently a study is underway to establish an on-going Formation Program for those priests newly ordained and those in the first five years of ordination.
Sr. Ellen Rose Coughlin, SSJ, Director. Religious Education and Formation are essential components to parish life. Through its central office in Ogdensburg and the regional offices in Watertown, Plattsburgh, and Ogdensburg, it assists parishes in establishing and maintaining religious education and formation programs for children and adults. For those who wish to become religious educators the Department provides the catechist formation program with the end result being a certified catechist qualified to work in catechetical formation and education in parishes.
Sr. Ellen Rose Coughlin, SSJ, Director of Catholic Education. The Department of Education provides leadership and direction to the Catholic schools throughout the diocese. It administers the Tuition Assistance Program, whereby funds made possible through the annual Bishop’s Fund, are awarded to the parents of children who meet the federal criteria for free and reduce lunches. This tuition assistance supports parents in their efforts to provide their children with a quality Catholic school education.
Rev. Msgr. John R. Murphy, Coordinator. Through the Bishop’s Good Samaritan Fund, Bishop Cunningham provides Christian charity, so dear to the heart of the Church and so much demanded by the Gospel, to people in the North Country who are experiencing financial difficulty. Their need may be due to illness, loss of work, or other economic hardship. Occasional gifts are also given to community organizations which respond to various personal needs of people throughout the area of the diocese. All requests for funding are made through priests or pastoral care workers of the parishes and institutions of the Ogdensburg Diocese.
Rev. Timothy G. Canaan, Director. The Diocesan Director of Campus Ministry provides leadership and support to those involved in Campus Ministry at eleven sites within the Diocese of Ogdensburg. The Director provides direction to those responsible for ministry at each location. Campuses are located in Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Canton, Wanakena, Paul Smiths, Watertown and Saranac Lake. Each campus strives to have a Catholic Church presence to the students. The Director helps each minister in that work by providing support. The Director oversees the work of coordinating the Inter-Collegiate Retreats held once a year at Guggenheim Center. The Director also visits the various Campus Directors at their ministry sites to support them and their students in their work.
Fr. Douglas J. Lucia, Director. Fr. Scott Seymour, Liturgical Music. The Worship Department provides resources to help parishes improve their worship. Besides video and printed material, we offer training sessions for lectors and eucharistic ministers, sponsor workshops for liturgical musicians and singers, and provide liturgical formation to deacons and lay ministers. The department provides assistance in the areas of church art and architecture, music and liturgy.
Rev. Msgr. Robert H. Aucoin, Director. The annual Bishop's Fund Appeal makes possible the Deacon Formation Program. More than 60 deacons have participated in this program over the years. At the current time, our new candidates take course online and participating in intense formation programs during ten weekends a year at Wadhams Hall. Courses in scripture, theology, pastoral studies, canon law along with formation in prayer and spiritual development are all part of the Deacon Formation Program.
The Bishop's Fund has made this program a reality. The generous support of the people of the Diocese of Ogdensburg to this annual appeal has meant that deacons can be prepared for service to the people. Your donation to the Bishop's Fund will be returned through the service of our future deacons.
Deacon Gary and Gayle Frank, Directors. Prepares and educates us about the covenant vocation of marriage and family life. This ministry encourages couples to be a living sacrament, a sign of God’s love, life and service in our world, supports families through changing life cycles and nurtures the holiness of family life. The Family Life Office provides programs to strengthen family life, such as Family Guggenheim family retreat program, parish programs for marriage enrichment such as “Dinner for Two” and other opportunities to help build family life. We celebrate the sacrament of Marriage with the annual Diocesan Marriage Jubilee. The office strives to work collaboratively with other offices to help provide support for strong Family Life with in our diocese.
Angelo and Suzanne Pietropaoli, Coordinators. Among John Paul II's lasting gifts to the Church was his insight into the greatness of human love in the divine plan. In his Apostolic Exhortation of the Family (29), he described the love of husband and wife and "a unique participation in the mystery of the life and love of God himself." Forth this reason, he continued, the Church has the special mission of guarding and protecting the dignity of marriage and the transmission of human life.
Natural Family Planning Services shares in this mission as we both propose God's plan for married love, and educate couples to live it faithfully. In addition to providing instruction in natural methods of fertility regulation, NFP Services provides speakers and educational materials to marriage preparation programs, works with pastors to make these available in parishes, and responds to requests from individuals seeking to understand Church teaching on married love. We are currently working with the Family Life Office to standardize and safeguard this teaching in new marriage preparation programs, and to incorporate the richness of John Paul II's Theology of the Body into the broader educational venues in our diocese. Thank you for your prayers and support in helping to strengthen marriages and to build up the People of God.
Deacon Brian Dwyer, Director. Young people are the future stewards of our world and Church, and it is incumbent upon us as a church community to nurture, guide and support these future leaders. The Office of Youth Ministry is committed to providing the parishes of the diocese with the support and resources needed to build and sustain youth-centered, parish-based youth ministry programs. The Office of Youth Ministry operates Camp Guggenheim and SportsCamp at Wadhams Hall.
Fr. Bryan Stitt, Director. The Vocations Office depends on the generosity of the people of the North Country through the Bishop's Fund to assist them financially in their efforts to foster and promote Church vocations in the Diocese of Ogdensburg. There is no greater need within the Church of Ogdensburg at the present time than the promotion and fostering of vocations to the ministerial priesthood and the consecrated life. This office seeks to provide opportunities, such as retreats, discernment groups, and personal conversation and spiritual direction, to counsel and to encourage men and women not to be afraid to accept Christs's call in their lives. At the present time, there is great need to expand the services of this office throughout the Diocese and into individual parishes and that is why your financial support is so essential and so appreciated.
Mr. Ralph Bennett, Director. The Guggenheim Center is a summer retreat and camp for children, young adults, and adults. Many come to Guggenheim to meet old friends and to make new friends while others come for the peace and solitude the Center offers on Lower Saranac Lake. Guggenheim is a place for seven week-long organized summer camp sessions for youth, family camping weekends, and youth weekend retreats. The Lodge provides the setting for meetings, conferences, and retreats for nuns, priests, deacons and other religious organizations within the Diocese. Without the support that the Center has received over the years from the Bishop’s Fund, the vast improvements to Guggenheim Center would not be possible. We are fortunate to have the dedication and support of the people of the Diocese of Ogdensburg.
Heidi Macko, Coordinator. Formation for Ministry is designed to provide academic, pastoral and spiritual formation. It is for sponsored persons ministering or seeking to minister in local parishes or a recognized pastoral ministry within the Diocese of Ogdensburg. This program has benefited from the Bishop’s Fund Appeal for several years. The parishes, along with trained lay ministers, appreciate your generosity to the Bishop’s Fund Appeal.
Sr. Mary Eamon Lyng, SSJ, Director. Provides an adult faith formation program called Why Catholic? by which people of parishes grow in the life of Christ through experience, reflection, prayers and study. This program also offers an invitation to inactive Catholics to “come and see” again how rich their Catholic Faith is. A diocesan event called The St. Paul Event will celebrate St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, the great evangelizer to the Church.
The Church has a special need to reach out to young adults in their late teens through their thirties. This ministry provides opportunities for young adults to mature in faith and spirituality and invites individuals to take personal responsibility for sharing in the ministry of their parishes.
John and Colleen Miner, Directors. Pope Benedict XVI in his inaugural homily in April 2005 said, "We are not some casual and meaningless product of this evolution. Each of us is the result of a though of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary." This quote is at the heart of the Respect Life Ministry, which is dedicated to building a culture of life through education, communication, and advocacy. The Bishop's Fund supports the work of the Respect Life Office.
Your contributions provide educational materials on a variety of life issues for our people through their pastors, parish respect life coordinators and at Diocesan events.
We are fortunate to have many active pro-life groups in our diocese. The Respect Life Office strives to keep information flowing by means of our Diocesan newspaper and Respect Life web site which is updated frequently with timely information. The Respect Life Office, supported by the Bishop's Fund, is just one way your donations help preach the Gospel of Life.
Mrs. Valerie Mathews, Director. Executes all the financial aspects of the Bishop’s Fund Appeal while maintaining the 45,000+ records of the families in the diocese. It oversees the budgets for each of the twenty agencies and programs that are supported by your contributions to the Bishop’s Fund Appeal.
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