Since I became a pastor, I have received this question somewhat frequently. In this bulletin note, I will do my best to answer these questions.
Fruitful Harvest is the means that the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana collects the cathedraticum or cathedral tax. The Bishop's Office in Lafayette assesses each parish a goal that they need to raise to meet their obligations to the diocese during a two-year period of time and each parish is responsible for raising this money or paying the difference between the money raised and the actual goal from Sunday collections. In other dioceses, the diocese taxes a certain percentage of all Sunday offerings (for example, I believe that the Diocese of Pittsburgh taxes parish collections at a rate well over 15%). The benefit from having a separate campaign to meet our obligations to the diocese is that, provided we meet our goal, all Sunday collection money stays in the parish.
The diocese spends Fruitful Harvest money to pay for diocesan activities. Included in these are the salary of the bishop and priests who do work in the chancery, lay employees, and continuing education for priests, financial oversight, seminarian education and many more things. While there is a separate collection for seminarians, it is my understanding that this collection does not cover the expenses involved in educating a seminarian, which ends up being between $300,000 and $400,000 per priset in today's dollars. As a pastor, I can tell you that the diocesan offices have been very helpful in completing building projects, advising on human resource and legal issues as well as processing annulment paperwork at no cost.
Regardless of how we feel about Fruitful Harvest, we have no choice but to meet the assessment set by the diocese. If we fail to meet our goals, as both parishes have by a very wide margin in the last campaign, we simply have to write very large checks to the diocese.