2024 Catholic Foundation Grant Recipients

August 29, 2024

St. John the Baptist, Newburgh Backpack Program

Theology of the Body

“Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is…Life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you.” -Pope Francis

Doing the Right Thing – What is the Change They Seek to Make

Sometimes doing the right thing is easy and we recognize it right away. Other times it takes long, prayerful consideration to determine what the right thing is and how to make it happen…and at times one leads to the other.

Five years ago Catherine Geraldine Walter Groben, a lovely, gracious, spiritual woman, passed away on Christmas Eve. Catherine and her husband Sy lived a good life and had many blessings. Later in her life, after Sy passed away, Catherine moved back to Evansville where she had grown up. Catherine had her affairs all in order. Her estate was to be divided among the charities that meant the most to her during her lifetime. Charities that supported her Catholic faith and served the poor. So for Catherine, doing the right thing with the treasure she had accumulated was easy, she gave it away to those who would be good stewards of the gift.

The Catholic Foundation of Southwestern Indiana was one of the charities chosen to receive a portion of Catherine’s estate. Her gift was unrestricted. She did not leave any written direction as to how the funds given to the Foundation were to be used, saying only, “the funds are to be used for such unrestricted purposes as its governing Board shall determine.” The Board of the Foundation did not taken this charge lightly. Many discussions, ideas and hours of discernment went into deciding how to honor Catherine’s life and carry on her vision of doing great things to serve Christ.

Keeping those ideas in mind, and combining Catherine’s gift with other unrestricted funds at its disposal, the Catholic Foundation Board chose to create the Catholic Foundation Grant Endowment. Last month the first three grants were awarded to organizations in the Diocese of Evansville. You will find articles about each of the grants in this issue of The Message. The Endowment will allow grants to be made on an annual basis to organizations in the Diocese of Evansville; grants that will help organizations seeking to make a change by furthering their outreach and missions, becoming the hands and feet of Christ in the world.

If you are seeking to make a change in the world through our faith, consider partnering with the Catholic Foundation in this granting effort to support innovative, faith filled projects in our parishes, schools and beyond. Time and talent are vitally important for making this program a success and we would love to talk to you about volunteer opportunities related the granting program. We welcome, and are grateful for, any contributions to this new initiative. For more information you can reach us at [email protected] or by phone at 812-424-5536. Donations may be made by clicking here or if you prefer a check can be mailed to the Catholic Foundation, PO Box 4169, Evansville, IN 47724.

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