BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL -- A week after its fund-raising dinner was canceled because of a flap over abortion, the Diocesan Catholic Children's Home has received additional pledges of $75,000.
The David E. Meyer Charitable Trust increased an original donation of $50,000 to the home to $100,000, Sister Jean Marie Hoffmann, the home's executive director, said Thursday.
The $100,000 is a grant that must be matched with other funds raised by the home, she said.
A quarter of the money, $25,000, will come from the diocese and a local business organization, diocesan spokesman the Rev. Tom Sacksteder said Thursday.
"Our Lord opens a door when another closes," Sister Hoffman said.
The money will be used to establish a Diagnostic Crisis Stabilization Unit at the home. Sister Hoffman described the unit as a place for "children who have reached a breaking point in their lives and whose behavior may cause harm to themselves or others."
"The additional $50,000 (Meyer) challenge grant gives the new Crisis Stabilization Unit the ability to operate for the long-term future," said board member Bruce Kozerski of Edgewood.
The home, on Orphanage Road in Fort Mitchell, serves about 30 children who have been removed from abusive situations at home. A May 15 dinner featuring Gov. Paul Patton was going to raise about $50,000 as a match to the Meyer Trust's original $50,000 grant. But Bishop Robert Muench and the home's board of directors canceled the dinner after receiving complaints about Mr. Patton's appearance from people opposed to abortion.
Bishop Muench said Mr. Patton's veto of legislation requiring a woman to wait 24 hours between scheduling and receiving an abortion "is inconsistent with the doctrine of the Catholic Church and the long-held beliefs of its members and organizations."
On Thursday Father Sacksteder said the diocese will continue to help raise money for the home, which receives much of its $1.2 million annual operating budget from private donations.
The diocese will join with the Leadership Northern Kentucky Class of 1998 in raising the $25,000 pledged Thursday.
The next major fund-raiser for the home will be June 12, 13 and 14 when it holds its annual Summer Festival and Reunion Picnic.
