Bishop Snyder is a man of prayer, vision, courage and compassion and I can testify that he relates to others with love, sensitivity and good humor. In 1980 Bishop Snyder convened a committee of priests and laity from across the diocese to plan for the financial future of the Diocese of Saint Augustine. After three years of meetings the committee recommended to Bishop Snyder that an Office of Stewardship be established and a Catholic Foundation be put in place to provide for the long-range financial stability of the diocese. Thanks to the efforts of a search committee I was chosen and officially opened the Stewardship Office on March 17, 1986. My wife Barbara and I had been actively promoting sacrificial giving of treasure many years before the concept of stewardship was introduced to American Catholics. Bishop Snyder showed his willingness to take risks and, even though his first instinct was to have a massive fund drive, he embraced the idea that if the stewardship office helped parishes increase their offertory income, then the diocese would also benefit since the diocese is supported in part with a percentage of parish offertory income. And it’s not surprising that what had the most appeal for our bishop was that we would be encouraging people to be more generous to the parish and the poor out of a sense of gratitude. This faith dimension of giving was far different from giving for “needs” that has been our history. Now Bishop Snyder speaks of “my need to give in response to God’s many gifts to me.” The Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Saint Augustine was established in 1987. That same year we began introducing “sacrificial giving”. The first 36 parishes experienced an average 41 percent increase in offertory income. The following year the Bishop’s Stewardship Appeal (BSA) was introduced to give our people an opportunity to support diocesan ministries by sharing one percent of their annual income with the diocese. From the very beginning and each of the succeeding 14 years, our good-natured, talented bishop has been featured on the BSA video. Through this media Bishop Snyder “appeared” to diocesan Catholics and, at weekend liturgies, encouraged the people to “take a step in faith” and increase their gift to the parish, diocese and the poor out of gratitude to a loving God who has given us everything. A Diocesan Education Task Force presented a huge challenge to Bishop Snyder in 1999 when they recommended that two new high schools were needed and called for immediate major renovation and expansion of the facilities at Saint Joseph Academy in St. Augustine. Diocesan staff brought forth other critical needs as well: an endowment for growing numbers of men in seminary education and formation, inner city schools, improved catechetical instruction and expansion of Morning Star School in Jacksonville. To his credit, Bishop Snyder convened all diocesan pastors to decide a course of action. After much thoughtful discussion it was decided that a feasibility study would help the diocese determine whether or not there was sufficient support for a major capital campaign. The feasibility study indicated that the diocese could expect to raise $30 million. The diocesan campaign “The Opportunity of a Lifetime for our children, our faith, our future” is now in its final stages. Close to $37 million has been raised — a marvelous testimony to thousands of Catholics who supported Bishop Snyder in this once-in-a-lifetime effort. Bishop Snyder, knowing he was retiring, could have left this massive project to the next bishop of Saint Augustine. However, he felt this would not be in the best interest of our children and would not be fair to his successor so he wholeheartedly threw himself into the campaign. He attended meetings, many campaign gatherings, countless campaign receptions and luncheons and took on the task of making one more video for the campaign. Bishop Snyder was absolutely essential to the success of this huge endeavor and did everything he could to help. We must not forget the professional counsel, and the extraordinary commitment and leadership provided by the campaign’s three co-chairs, Robert Shircliff, Mary Hughes and John McLaughlin. Their dedication and hard work helped us to exceed our goal. Stewardship is still alive and well following the campaign. In this year’s Bishop’s Steward-ship Appeal video he stated that “the most important heritage he would be leaving the diocese after shepherding it for 21 years was the introduction and promotion of stewardship and sacrificial giving. ” Bishop Snyder is a man of prayer, vision, courage and compassion who is loved by all who know him. It has been my privilege to have worked with him for the past 15years — what a blessing! Francis Scholtz recently retired as Director of the Office of Stewardship.