Honoring Our Global Mission, Protecting Our Local Ministry

This weekend we welcome Bishop Rodolfo to our parish. He is the Bishop for the Diocese where our Sister Parish is located. This will be his first visit to our parish. However, he is quite familiar to the Midwest, as he was a foreign exchange student in Iowa when he was in high school. We are deeply honored to have him make a visit to our parish. He will arrive late Saturday evening and depart next Thursday. (In Latin America, bishops generally use the title Monsignor.) He will be with us for the Masses on Sunday and Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM. 

For those who have supported our parish/school by participating in the SCRIP program, we have decided we will no longer be involved with the SCRIP program and selling the gift cards as we have been in the past. We are grateful to the volunteers and participants who have bought cards from us in the past. This program has provided the funds we needed for several projects at our school.

There are two things that have led us to make this decision. We have seen a decline in the number of people purchasing gift cards from us. We believe this is in part due to the fact that you can now buy gift cards at various retailers that are discounted more than what we earn by selling the same cards. For example, various retailers offer $100 in gift cards for $90 or less. We typically make two to four dollars for every $100 in gift cards we sell. 

Second, by selling gift cards we expose ourselves to potential theft and fraud. We need to handle a large amount of cash in order to make a small profit. As our return on a sale averages four percent, to make $100, we need to handle $2500. Also, someone could purchase a large amount of gift cards, pay by check, and when the bank goes to draw money for payment find the account lacking in funds or even closed. We would have no way to recover the cards or recoup our loss.

We are working hard to safeguard our parish from fraud, which unfortunately is becoming a greater problem. We feel we need to eliminate the SCRIP program as a part of our fraud prevention. 

Again, thank you to all who have supported the SCRIP program. When SCRIP was launched it was an innovative and great way for churches and schools to raise funds. Like many fundraisers and other activities, they have a life span. We believe it is time to put SCRIP to rest.