Bishop Ricken's Message
November 2004

CHEYENNE – At the last clergy institute held at the end of September in Casper, we began our Year of Study and Prayer on Stewardship. This institute was truly a moment of grace for the priests, deacons and for myself.

Bishop Eugene Gerber, retired Bishop of Wichita, Kansas, was our keynote speaker. He is a bishop who not only speaks about stewardship but actually implemented it and lived it in his diocese for
nearly 20 years. He invited every Catholic in the diocese to tithe of their time, talent and treasure. Of
course, tithing means 10 percent off of the top of your time, your talents, and your treasure goes to
God.

As more people began to “steward” their resources according to God’s plan, great fruits began to
flow into the diocese. Today, in the Diocese of Wichita, 10,500 students attend Catholic schools free
of charge.

Vocations are becoming almost super abundant there. They presently have more than 35 seminarians and many young priests have been ordained in the last few years. While most dioceses in the
country have a 35 to 40 percent attendance rate at Sunday Masses every Sunday, the Diocese of
Wichita has approximately 75 percent. There are massive building projects for schools, churches, and
parish centers going on in that diocese today. According to the Bishop Gerber, all of these positive
signs of growth are the result of stewardship when it is practiced as a way of life.

Father Andrew Kemberling of St. Thomas More Parish in Denver, a parish of over six thousand families, practices stewardship and has for some time. The parish has come alive spiritually and apostolically
in the last few years. Father Andrew has been teaching stewardship in the parishes to which he has been assigned for more than 15 years. Along with his assistant, Mila Glodava, he shared many practical tools with the priests and deacons, sample homilies, and other practical ways to become a stewardship parish
through prayer, meditation, and generous acts of sharing yourself with others.

I see stewardship as a real invitation for us here in Wyoming. During this Year of Study and Prayer, I have asked the priests and deacons to join me in an hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament every day, to recite the Rosary with new attention and focus, and to study the United States Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter: Stewardship, A Disciple’s Response, with several members of their parishes.

I would ask all of you to read our Wyoming Catholic Register every month as there will be a teaching on stewardship regularly. Please read, study, pray with us, and plan to attend the January Institute or the Come and See Conference in May to see what the excitement is all about.