The Father Bishop Legacy Society is Glenmary’s way of recognizing the people who make planned gifts to Glenmary from their will, trust, gift annuity or other means in order to ensure the future of home mission ministry.
Established in 2003 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the death of Glenmary’s founder, Father William Howard Bishop, this society is an expression of Glenmary’s commitment to keep alive the vision of their founder and to continue the important missionary work he began right here at home.
The Legacy
Father Bishop leaves a rich legacy to the U.S. Church. In a 1983 master’s thesis on the charism of Father Bishop, Father Dan Dorsey said: “The fundamental gift of the Holy Spirit seems to be Father Bishop’s sense of mission, which was characterized by its rural bias and solicitude for the neglected.”
That gift—that charism—is the legacy Father Bishop has left to Glenmary. That’s also the gift legacy-members of the Father Bishop Legacy Society want to see continue as a living force, an impulse of the Holy Spirit in the present and the future.
Legacy Society Membership
Members of The Father Bishop Legacy Society are invited to an annual Mass celebrated at Our Lady of the Fields Chapel at Glenmary Headquarters in Cincinnati. All members are remembered in a special way at that Mass, in addition to being remembered daily in the prayers of all Glenmary priests, brothers and coworkers.
Ensuring the Future
Nearly 20 percent of Glenmary’s operating revenue in a typical year comes from planned gifts. That’s why those who make a bequest to Glenmary, establish a Glenmary charitable gift annuity, create a charitable trust or participate in a pooled-income fund are so critical to the future of the Catholic Church in the small towns and rural areas of the United States.
The missionary challenge continues here at home! Your planned gifts ensure that Glenmary can continue to respond.
For more information about donations through planned giving, contact us at 800-935-0975.
To help you easily create or update your legally-binding will, Glenmary has partnered with FreeWill so you can do so for free! Click here.