Bishop's Special Appeal

Go to the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks Annual Catholic Appeal for 2011

Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska
1312 Peger Rd * Fairbanks, Alaska 99709 * (907) 374-9500




April 2010
My Dear Friends,

     In August of 2002, I was ordained the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks. It was just at that time that sexual abuse cases involving Catholic Church employees, especially priests, began to be publicly filed across the nation. During the almost eight years since my ordination, I have been immersed in hundreds of lawsuits levied against the diocese.  In March of 2008, I found it necessary to file for Chapter 11 reorganization. It has all along been my sincere hope that we could accomplish a fair and equitable compensation of survivors of abuse without abandoning our primary mission, that is to bring the Mass and the Sacraments to the people of Northern Alaska, an area covering 409,849 square miles and serving 46 parishes, including 38 parishes, which cannot be reached by road.

     This February, our plan for reorganization was approved by the courts, allowing the Diocese of Fairbanks to emerge from bankruptcy and to continue our efforts toward a healing process, especially for the survivors of abuse, and for the Church. The diocese reached a settlement that includes claimants sharing a $9.8 million trust compiled from insurance money, parish contributions, and sales of diocesan property to our endowment. In resolving the financial ramifications of this settlement, it is my firm resolve, my sacred pledge, to respect parish assets and contributions designated for specific diocesan ministries, programs, and projects.

     I do not have enough men, not even half enough, to furnish each parish with a full-time priest. Difficult decisions have had to be made due to tremendous financial burdens. Unfortunately, these decisions have, in some cases, truly impaired our missionary work. Priests, Sisters, Brothers, Deacons, and Lay Administrators have worked tirelessly to ensure the success of their respective ministries, often without cost of living increases, and, in many cases, with reduced staffing and scaled-back programs. Severely limited travel funds have made it impossible for missionaries to adequately cover the different bush missions entrusted to their ministerial care. As a result, parish communities in the bush have had to go for lengthy periods of time without the Mass and Sacraments.

     During the past two years, owing to the process of bankruptcy, the diocese has incurred staggering legal costs - this, just at the time it experienced, most painfully, the devastating effects of the nationwide financial downturn, a downturn that stripped us of the normal relied-upon returns on our investments!

     In 2004, Pope John Paul II, in his message to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said, "financial support...places an obligation on the receiver to demonstrate transparency and accountability in the use made of such assistance." Complete transparency and total accountability have, unwaveringly, been my policy from the outset of my ministry in northern Alaska. As this diocese emerges from bankruptcy and renews its total dedication to the mission entrusted to it, I am faced with many deadlines and requirements of the settlement that will continue to put an additional and unexpected strain on diocesan finances. One of the requirements is that I travel to over 30 communities to hold healing ceremonies, listening sessions, read a statement of apology, and encourage parishioners to support the survivors of abuse. Those travels over Alaska's vast distances will be costly - both in terms of dollars and in terms of time and energy demands to be expended by me. Please help us with the dollars - and please, I beg you, pray the Divine Healer to help me with the overall mission of healing I am called upon to carry out.

     I have addressed you as "dear friends." Indeed, such you are - and have been, and, I am confident, will continue to be. Your personal loyalty and friendship during these turbulent years mean so very much to me. I am most grateful to you for that supportive loyalty and friendship. My human heart is not capable of sufficiently expressing the depth of my gratitude to you. I have to leave it to God to thank you, to bless and reward you, as He alone can. I, for my part, shall continue to remember you and all your concerns in my daily Masses and prayers. I deeply appreciate being remembered in your good prayers.

Most Sincerely in Our Risen Lord,
Donald J Kettler
Bishop of Fairbanks





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