Two years ago, St. Columbanus Church suffered from a leaky roof, old, ill-fitting windows and doors and was in desperate need of tuckpointing. “The place was in terrible physical shape,” said pastor Father Matthew Eyerman.

That has changed over the past year, Eyerman said, with the help of $2 million from the archdiocese. As the building has been renovated, weekly Mass attendance at the South Side parish has swelled 74 percent from 323 in 1999 to 598 last year. School enrollment also grew 14 percent, to 376, and Eyerman hopes to have 500 students soon.

“We’re one of the fastest growing parishes and schools in the archdiocese,” he said.

St. Columbanus is one success story the archdiocese is using to promote the Annual Catholic Appeal, which will be launched with a special collection in the parishes March 10-11.

During his recent pilgrimage to Mexico City, Cardinal George said he was again “reminded how fortunate we are, who by accident of birth have inherited the most beautiful cornucopia of God’s blessings ever bestowed on a nation.”

He said he hoped a growing sense of stewardship would help him continue to share the church’s resources with those who need it here in Cook and Lake counties.

The Annual Appeal is expected to raise $7 million this year, a goal it slightly exceeded last year. That makes it the third largest source of income for the archdiocesan pastoral center, said Timothy Dockery of the Stewardship and Development Office. The archdiocese uses the money for its general administrative and operating costs, to support schools and religious education programs, to educate priests and to help Catholic Relief Services, as well as give financial help to parishes.

“The goal is to help a parish during a time when they are struggling so they can achieve self-sufficiency,” Dockery said. “We try to help them to get on their feet.”

That’s exactly what St. Paul Parish near Cermak Road and Damen Avenue needed, said Claretian Father Richard Todd, an associate pastor at the church.

An influx of young families meant the church was often filled with people—on some weekends, as many as 21 babies were baptized there—but the 102-year-old brick Gothic structure needed major renovation.

In a mostly low-income neighborhood, parishioners did not know if they could afford the work. After all, each of the 264 students at the parish school qualifies for free or reduced-price student lunches. This is the first year in the 10 years that the Claretian priests who staff the parish have included salaries for themselves in the annual budget.

The archdiocese provided about $2 million for the renovation, along with a life-safety grant to bring the church hall up to current safety codes after there was a fire.

The parish raised $100,000 on its own. St. Paul Federal Savings and Loan, which was founded in the church basement, contributed $20,000, Todd said.

Now that parishioners can see the scaffolding and know the church will be saved, it has become easier for them to take ownership and make a financial commitment, he said. A recent effort increased Sunday collections from about $2,600 a week to more than $3,000 a week.

Archdiocesan offices that are funded partially by the annual appeal include Family Ministries, which coordinates marriage preparation programs and provides support for people going through separations, annulments or bereavement.

“We have contact with virtually every parish every year,” said director Frank Hannigan. “Every parish that has couples getting married, every parish with a bereavement program. We provide some programs directly, and we train people to provide other programs. It’s like a ripple: we touch people, and then they touch people, and then they touch other people.”

Dockery said the archdiocese hopes more people will support such programs by pledging donations and spreading them out over 10 monthly payments. “We hope families will view helping others throughout the archdiocese as a year-long effort and pledging allows families to make a bigger gift.”

Last year, 68,000 families contributed to the Appeal. A total of 1,287 contributed $1,000 or more, making them part of the Lumen Cordium Society. But that 2 percent of donors contributed $2.7 million, nearly a third of the total collected.

“That’s the fastest-growing area of the Appeal,” Dockery said. People who donate at that level—$100 a month—receive a complementary subscription to The Catholic New World and an invitation to a Mass of Recognition and a reception with Cardinal George.

The archdiocese is also seeking more donations at the Bishop’s Society level, which recognizes donations of $250-$999.

Long term, Dockery said, the archdiocese hopes to get 5 percent of registered families to give at that level. “That’s $25 a month,” he said. “If you think of it in terms of other expenses, that’s less than a month of cable, certainly less than a meal out in a restaurant.”