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	Launching $14m Drive, Archdiocese Raises Bar By Michael Paulson Boston Globe May 2, 2007 http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/02/launching_14m_drive_archdiocese_raises_bar/ Weymouth — Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley , speaking yesterday at the site where a thriving parish is rebuilding a church that burned to the ground nearly two years ago, launched the archdiocese's most ambitious fund drive since the clergy sexual abuse crisis badly damaged diocesan finances. Continuing his effort to rebuild the archdiocese incrementally before its bicentennial next year, O'Malley set a goal of $14 million for this year's Catholic Appeal. O'Malley has been increasing the goal by $1 million each year since his arrival in Boston in 2003. Last year, he surpassed the goal, raising $13.8 million. O'Malley chose to launch this year's campaign at Sacred Heart parish in Weymouth to symbolize the ability of the church to move past crisis and tragedy. The Sacred Heart church, now under construction, is expected to reopen in November; in the meantime, the parish is worshiping in the school auditorium. Since the fire, attendance at worship and enrollment in the school have risen, according to the pastor, the Rev. Daniel J. Riley . "They turned a heartbreak into a witness of the faith," O'Malley said, speaking in the library of Sacred Heart elementary school, with a group of first-graders in yellow hard hats arrayed at his feet. The seven-alarm fire, in June 2005, was sparked by an old refrigerator in the church basement. At the peak of its annual fund-raising ability, in 2000, the archdiocese raised $17.2 million; the intake plunged to $8.8 million in 2002, at the height of the abuse crisis. Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
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