The Diocesan Communicator is delivered through Flocknote.  You are now able to read the information right in your email message!

If you have any thoughts or suggestions to share, please email Sara at sshusta@dioceseofmarquette.org and John at jfee@dioceseofmarquette.org.

The current Communicator, as well as past issues, are available on the Diocesan website at https://dioceseofmarquette.org/communicator.

April 15, 2024     Deadline to Notify Michigan Catholic Conference of July 1, 2024

                            Benefit Changes 

April 20, 2024     St. Joseph Association/Good Shepherd Sunday Collection

                           (Stewardship & Development)

April 21, 2024     St. Joseph Association/Good Shepherd Sunday Collection

                           (Stewardship & Development)

April 30, 2024     Employee Deadline to Enroll in 12-Month Credit Monitoring

                            through Experian Identity Works (Administration & Finance)

April 30, 2024     Diocesan Catholic Schools Collection Remittance Deadline

                           (Stewardship & Development)

The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars has made available to clergy a website feature periodic newsletter, free of charge.  Each monthly installment of Teaching the Faith makes use of the scriptural readings for a given Sunday in order to provide clergy with assistance in preparing homilies on doctrinal topics, difficult and perhaps controversial subjects of current importance, and themes in Catholic prayer and spirituality. The website may be found at: https://www.catholicscholars.org/TTFlist.php

Please continue to input your weekly weekend Mass attendance counts (for all Vigil and Sunday Masses combined) each week.  The weekly Mass Attendance counts will give us a baseline for our Mass attendance as we work together to increase Mass attendance through evangelization efforts discussed in Bishop John’s Pastoral Letter on Evangelization entitled: “Transforming Fire: A New Pentecost to form Spirit-Filled Evangelizers.”  If you have any questions, please contact the Office of the Bishop at (906) 227-9115.   Weekly Weekend Mass Attendance Counts Form Link. Mass Attendance (jotform.com)

Please join us on Thursday, May 2, 2024, for the annual Priest Appreciation Mass. This year’s host parish is St. Louis the King in Harvey. The public Mass begins at 4 p.m.  The dinner honoring the priests and jubilarians is closed to the public.

Reminder: The Safe Environment Policy requires all volunteers and employees to complete refresher training every five years. This training, Keeping the Promise Alive, was assigned in December to all known active clergy, employees, and volunteers. A reminder was sent to the individual if an active email address is listed in their VIRTUS account. Please work with your active employees and volunteers to ensure the training is completed prior to active involvement at the parish or school.

Registration for Spring Confirmations is still open.

The Masses have been scheduled as follows:

Diocesan and St. Peter Cathedral Vicariate Confirmations (combined)

St. Peter Cathedral, Marquette               3:30 p.m. ET         April 21, 2024

Holy Name of Mary Vicariate

St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Ignace,               3 p.m. ET              April 28, 2024

St. Mary Norway Vicariate

American Martyrs, Kingsford                  3 p.m. CT              May 5, 2024

If you have any questions please contact Mark Salisbury, (906) 227-9127 or msalisbury@dioceseofmarquette.org.

The upcoming principals meeting is Thursday, April 18, 2024 from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. ET at the Diocesan Offices.

The annual Catholic Schools Religion Bee will be held on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at Holy Name Catholic High School in Escanaba, Mich.  

SCHOOL COUNCIL MINUTES
 All schools are reminded they are to submit all agenda and minutes from school council meetings and supporting committee meetings to our office after each meeting.  Minutes and agendas can be sent to Sara Shusta, sshusta@dioceseofmarquette.org.

Please send photos of First Communion, Confirmation (vicariate groups), and RCIA groups for publication in The U.P. Catholic’s annual Sacraments and RCIA issue. The deadline to submit photos for the 2024 sacraments issue is Friday, June 7.  Be sure to list names (left to right) front row, second row, third row, back row, etc. Photos may be sent by e-mail to news@dioceseofmarquette.org or mailed to The U.P. Catholic, 1004 Harbor Hills Dr., Marquette, MI 49855.

The U.P. Catholic is planning to publish Summer Mass times in the May 24 issue of the paper.  Please submit Mass times using the form below no later than Friday, May 3.

Form: https://www.jotform.com/60895625041154

Please remember to contact the Diocesan Communications Staff at news@dioceseofmarquette.org if your parish/school is celebrating any major milestones, events, missions or outreach in 2024 or 2025.

Have you ever wondered what drives returns in your parish or school investment account? Do you want to know more about what kind of assets the Church invests in? Are you curious about the benefits of joining the National Catholic Investment Pool? 

If so, please mark your calendars now to attend the Annual Investment Pool Virtual Conference and get a chance to talk with financial experts from Captrust and Michigan Catholic Conference. This year’s conference will be held on April 23, 2024 from 4-6 p.m. Eastern Time. To register for this event, please click on the link below. We hope to see you then! 

 ANNUAL INVESTMENT POOL VIDEO CONFERENCE 2024 (jotform.com) 

 

Employees of the Diocese of Marquette received notices of a security event involving the unauthorized access of employees’ personal information earlier this year. We take this event very seriously, and upon learning of the breach, diocesan staff worked to address the issue as quickly and completely as possible while providing employees with the best resources to protect themselves from potential fraud. Please refer to the attached memo and sample letter (Addendum #1) for more information about this event, our response, and fraud protection options available to affected employees. 

Employees are encouraged to take advantage of fraud protection resources, including complimentary 12-month credit monitoring services offered by Experian. As a reminder, employees must enroll through Experian by April 30, 2024, to take advantage of the complimentary 12-month credit monitoring services offer. To enroll, please visit https://www.experianidworks.com/credit or call (855) 356-3059 and provide the activation code from your letter  Employees can also answer questions concerning this security event and potential incidents of identity fraud and misuse by calling Experian Representatives at (855) 356-3059. If you have any other questions, please contact Tim Thomas. 

Please find 2024-2025 Benefit and Insurance rate information in Addendum #2 of this Communicator. If you have any questions regarding rate changes, please contact Terry Bailey.   

Initially scheduled to begin in January 2024, property transfers to parish corporations have been pushed back. Diocesan staff are working with legal counsel to convey all properties as soon as possible over the next several months. As soon as properties are transferred to parish corporations, each parish will receive a summary of its land parcels as well as copies of the deeds recorded with local County Clerks/Registers of Deeds. Please file these documents with other parish incorporation records at the parish office once received.

Parishes should not transfer bank accounts to corporate entities until they receive further instructions from the diocesan office. Look out for additional instructions on transferring parish assets and liabilities in the coming months. If you have any questions about the parish incorporation process, please contact Tim Thomas or Irene McCauley for additional assistance. 

The Legacy of Faith Board of Directors would like to thank all who applied for grant funding for faith formation programs taking place during the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Notification of approval/denial will be sent out in June 2024.

Developed in the spirit of Legacy of Faith to preserve and foster the Catholic faith in the Upper Peninsula, the Catholic Service Award annually recognizes lifetime dedication and service to the Church. Nominate someone today by clicking here! Nomination forms are due by May 1, 2024.

Make plans now to promote the annual Good Shepherd Collection scheduled to be taken up on April 20-21 in all parishes. Materials to promote the collection can be found in Addendum #3 and were emailed to all pastors, associate pastors, and pastoral coordinators on March 7, 2024. Please see the Bulletin Announcements section for materials to include in upcoming parish bulletins to promote this collection.

STEWARDSHIP E-NEWS
 Click here to see the latest issue. Invite your parishioners to subscribe, use this link: https://dioceseofmarquette.flocknote.com/Stewardship/notes. We do not share subscriber emails outside of our organization.

Beginning April 1, we returned to our regular hours of Monday through Friday noon to 5 p.m. for tours and to visit the gift shop.  We will be closed on Thursday, April 11, however, as I will be in the Gaylord Diocese for a presentation on Bishop Baraga.  

Retired priests of the Diocese of Marquette receive health and automobile insurance and a monthly pension from the St. Joseph Association, the diocesan priest retirement fund.  Diocesan priests live independently during their retirement, and they use their pension for basic needs, such as food, housing and transportation. 

All parishes and missions in the Diocese of Marquette will participate in a special collection on April 20-21 to help provide for our senior diocesan priests. It is essential that we ensure adequate retirement and health coverage in the years ahead for our priests, especially in these challenging times. Please return your collection envelope during next weekend’s Masses or donate to the St. Joseph Association online by visiting osvhub.com/dioceseofmarquette/giving/funds/st-joseph-association.

This weekend all parishes and missions in the Diocese of Marquette are holding a Good Shepherd Sunday special collection to support our priests’ retirement fund, called the St. Joseph Association.  This collection directly benefits priests of the Diocese of Marquette and is separate from the annual collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious, which supports retired clergy and sisters of religious orders across America.   

Please prayerfully reflect on how you can best help support our own priests’ retirement and return your envelope in today’s collection or donate to the St. Joseph Association online by visiting osvhub.com/dioceseofmarquette/giving/funds/st-joseph-association. 

On Good Shepherd Sunday, our parish and all parishes and missions throughout our diocese took up a special collection to support our priests’ retirement fund, known as the St. Joseph Association.  Collectively, our parishioners have raised $_AMOUNT_ to date.  We truly appreciate your support.  If you were unable to donate last weekend, you may still support our retired priests by returning your envelope marked for the benefit of the “Good Shepherd Collection” in today’s collection or by dropping it off at the parish office. Parishioners can also donate to the St. Joseph Association online by visiting osvhub.com/dioceseofmarquette/giving/funds/st-joseph-association.