BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) — The Catholic churches in Baltimore say they need more money to carry out their mission. So now, as Mike Schuh reports, the archbishop is asking for help, and a lot of it.

The speaker at an assembly for Catholic school kids is not afraid to ask for a little help from above.

“With a goal of raising a minimum of 100 million dollars,” Baltimore’s Archbishop William E. Lori said.

You heard correctly. With a half a million Catholics, 150 parishes and 70 schools, the archdiocese has great needs.

The archdiocese says the fundraising campaign announced Wednesday is the first in 15 years. It plans to distribute the money to the following causes: $50 million will go to schools, $20 million to the parishes, $10 million to charity, $10 million to retired clergy, $7 million to preserve the archdiocese’s two cathedrals and $3 million to evangelizing.

Some of the $50 million will go directly to parents to help with tuition.

Schuh: “How much does it cost to go here?”
Parent of a kindergartener: “$2,000.”

She will gladly accept the help.

Money the archdiocese knows it needs to offer to keep it’s education affordable.

“I think this is important because we have to look to the future– the beautiful things that we are doing, the important things for the church and the community are sustainable,” Lori said.
Schuh: “It’s a pretty audacious goal. It struck me of that adage, ‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall? You practice. How do you get to $100 million? You ask.’”
Lori: “Exactly right.”

With $64 million already pledged, their question seems to be getting answered.

That campaign runs till 2014.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)