December 2002

 
Benefactors help to further Sisters’ mission

When Paul Smiy received the Sisters of St. Joseph annual Christmas appeal last year he filed it away with other requests for funding from his small family foundation.

Recently, as he was going through his files he came upon the letter describing Visitation House, the Sisters of St. Joseph’s newest ministry initiative with and for young adults. He read about the Sisters’ plan to provide a community living experience for young Catholic women seeking to live their faith more intentionally. He also learned of the Sisters’ hope to provide various faith formation and spiritual development opportunities for additional young, Catholic adults in the Pittsburgh area.

He found that the mission and interests of the Sisters of St. Joseph matched his own philanthropic interests. Days later the Sisters received a generous gift of support for Visitation House from the Paul and Anne Smiy Family Foundation.

“We wish you success in your ministry to assist young Catholic women and men spiritually as they journey through life,” Paul wrote in the handwritten letter accompanying his gift to the Sisters.

Benefactors like Paul and Anne Smiy, as well as generous friends, relatives and colleagues of our Sisters both living and deceased, play an increasingly important role in helping to further the Sisters of St. Joseph's mission of drawing all people closer to God and to one another.

The Congregation’s Peace Camp, which recently won an award from the Beaver County Peace Links, is another project which is largely supported and made possible through the generosity of others who share our hope for peaceful alternatives to personal, local, regional and global violence.

The two-week intergenerational experience that brings together our Sisters, young adults, teen-agers, and children to learn and to teach alternatives to violence, costs nearly $50,000.00 to conduct each year. Well over half of the cost each year was underwritten by benefactor support and foundation grants.

Paul Smiy’s gift for Visitation House will be added to the many other gifts that provided over $30.000.00 toward the start-up and programming costs for the Sisters’ ministry with young adults.

And each day our Development Office responds with gratitude to the many gifts, both small and large, that help to further our mission and ministries.

Many of our benefactors write of their gratitude for the opportunity to share in the mission and ministries of our sisters. They see their gift to our Congregation as a means of bringing to life the Gospel. values of Jesus Christ, and they take seriously their part in this type of partnership that continues to further the mission of union and reconciliation.

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