CATHOLIC Mission national director Martin Teulan has a new mission – it’s to make Catholics aware of the important part their bequests can play in building the Church of the future.
Among those helping him in the campaign are Catholic Mission bequest officer David Robinson and recently appointed Brisbane archdiocesan director David McGovern.
Mr Teulan was in Brisbane recently to take part in a conference attended by Queensland Catholic Mission staff to discuss, among other matters, ways to boost fundraising by tapping into an increasing trend of people to bequest money to their favourite charities.
The January 16 meeting was one of several preliminary state gatherings before the national conference in Alice Springs from March 16 to 20.
Mr Teulan gave The Catholic Leader two statistics that he said were important to consider in the campaign.
“One is that only about 58 per cent of Australians actually have a will,” he said.
“The other is that bequests to Catholic Mission have trebled since 2003 – they were about half a million that year and have now reached about one and a half billion dollars annually.
“Catholic Mission would like to tap into this vast resource which can so help the Church’s growth in Australia.”
Mr Teulan said regional meetings such as the one in Brisbane emphasised skilling all staff in modern mission and evangelisation on the local and international level.
Mr McGovern said he “keenly supported the campaign” as such donations were vital to the Church’s future.
“In his welcome to the Queensland Catholic Mission gathering, Fr Peter Meneely talked about 150th anniversary of the Queensland Church and how it has been built up over the years by the generosity of many benefactors both during this life and after,” Mr McGovern said.
Mr Robinson said a major issue was to educate people to make a will in the first place.
“People need to know that if they die without a will their intentions aren’t going to be fulfilled.
“The worst case scenario is that their estate may be distributed according to a formula and their possessions may go to people they may not necessarily approve of.”
