12
March 5, 2019 | The Valley Catholic
COMMUNITY
Extending Our Reach
for the families that we leave behind.
After Jennifer’s presentation, I had
the privilege to help the audience re-
flect on the Catholic legacies that we
as good stewards want to leave for our
faith communities. As others who came
before us have done, we intrinsically
want to help build and preserve the
faith for future generations. I discussed
ways that some people are choosing to
do this through a bequest in their will
or trust, or through choosing a benefi-
ciary designation in a retirement plan,
life insurance policy or a bank account.
At the end of the event, parishio-
ner Jose Orozco shared with us his
gratitude: “I found this information
extremely valuable. I had a general idea
of what the seminar was going to be
about, but I didn’t realize there were so
many things to consider and plan for. I
didn’t even know that we could provide
for our Parish in our estate plans. It
never occurred to me.”
We at the Catholic Foundation are
grateful for this opportunity to bring
valuable information and present this
stewardship message to our communi-
ties in the Diocese of San Jose. We look
forward to the next time!
If you would like your parish to host
one of these events in English or Span-
ish, please contact Carolina Scipioni at
(408) 995-5219 or [email protected].
By Carolina Scipioni
Endowment & Planned
Giving Program
Manager, Catholic
Community Foundation
of Santa Clara County
On February 9th we gathered at Sa-
cred Heart of Jesus Parish for our first
ever Estate Planning & Legacy Giving
Seminar in Spanish.
Since we started planning these
seminars last year, we knew that we
wanted to expand our outreach to
our ever-growing Catholic Spanish-
speaking community. After a year of
learning and practice, we felt ready
to start. However, as expected every
time that you attempt something new,
we had a lot of fear and anxiety about
what would happen. Would we get the
materials translated in time? Would
we find an estate planning attorney
to present in Spanish? Would people
show up?
Luckily, we had the enthusiastic
support of Father Walter Suarez and his
parish staff. They had not only done a
phenomenal job promoting the event,
they also personally invited all the
different parish groups. Their efforts
showed. Despite the heavy rain and
gusty winds of that Friday evening,
115 parishioners attended the event to
learn about family estate planning and
to reflect about leaving a legacy for our
community of faith.
Any of the anxiety that I had felt
before the event was replaced by peace
and joy as soon as the parish youth
group, “Jóvenes para Cristo” started
playing their music and singing. What
an experience! I felt welcomed into the
community and knew that it was going
to be a great evening.
Father Walter began the event by
leading us in prayer and sharing his
biblical perspective on estate planning.
“During our lives,” he began, “each one
of us is called to be a good administra-
tor of what God has entrusted to us.
And part of being a good administra-
tor, a good steward, is to plan for what
will happen to our resources once we
join our Father in heaven.”
He shared a personal story to illus-
trate, in a light-hearted way, that none
of us like to think about dying but that
gathering end-of-life documents and
making decisions early on is important
for all of us. “As Catholics”, he added,
“we want our legacies to be intentional
and we can’t really leave legacies that
matter without discerning what we
want to leave behind when we leave
this world.”
Following this wonderful introduc-
tion, Jennifer Ramirez, an Estate Plan-
ning Attorney who partners with the
Catholic Community Foundation, pre-
sented the basics of Estate Planning and
walked us through different scenarios
from dying without an estate plan, with
a Will and with a Living Trust. She
explained how each of these scenarios
have not only financial implications,
but more importantly they present
different degrees of emotional burden
honoring traditions, strengthening faith.
Your Dignity Memorial ® professionals are dedicated to helping
families honor the heritage of the Catholic faith with a meaningful
memorial that truly celebrates the life it represents.
R
Lima FamiLy
Erickson Memorial Chapel
San JoSe
LimaFamilyEricksonMemorial.com
408-295-5160
FD 128
Lima FamiLy
Milpitas-Fremont Mortuary
& Cedar Lawn Cemetery
Fremont
LimaFamilyCedarLawn.com
408-263-2868
Lima FamiLy
Santa Clara Mortuary WiLLoW GLen
Santa Clara
LimaFamilySantaClara.com
408-296-2977 San JoSe
WillowGlenFuneralHome.com
408-295-6446
FD 93 FD 813
Funeral Home
FD 1262 / COA 466
M3192_LimaFamily_PNT_Catholic_10.1234x4_C.indd 1
2/17/16 8:18 PM