A record crowd celebrated works of Christian charity and helped make the 2011 Communities of Salt and Light Award Dinner sponsored by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Greensburg the most successful ever.

The 13th annual event held at Stratigos Banquet Centre in North Huntingdon April 28 honored several people and an organization, and the 456 attendees helped raise funds for Catholic Charities to use for material assistance to people in need.

Catholic Charities uses the net proceeds from the Salt and Light Dinner to provide that assistance to people throughout the diocese’s four counties — Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland. When the final accounting is completed, this year’s dinner is expected to net a record of more than $82,300 for that assistance, according to Judy Modecki, director of coordinated services and development for Catholic Charities.

That will bring the dinner’s 13-year net proceeds to nearly $750,000.

Msgr. Raymond E. Riffle, managing director of Catholic Charities, served as master of ceremonies and said in his opening remarks that the evening honors "those who have served their brothers and sisters purely in the name of God’s love."

He thanked the attendees for their support and for participating "in the work of building up the kingdom of God in the here and now" through their efforts on behalf of Catholic Charities. He also thanked the honorees and recognized that none of them did the things they were being recognized for at the dinner for the recognition.

"I know you act as individuals and as a group for the good of Christ’s poor," he said.

Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt, who presented the awards to each of the honorees, noted in his remarks that the recession has caused poverty and unemployment to spread to new communities, which has put new strains on social service agencies like Catholic Charities.

He said it is important to use Gospel principles in service to our brothers and sisters and discussed the common good described in Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth").

Bishop Brandt said that "when animated by charity, the commitment to the common good has a greater worth than a merely secular stand will have" because that stand can be sectarian and self-interested.

The decision to promote charity is not fundamentally an institutional or societal action, Bishop Brandt said. "Rather, it is an action performed by individuals inspired by God who guide their society toward a more Christlike reality."

Bishop Brandt also thanked the honorees for understanding "the notion that God is on the side of the poor, and that when we care for them, we honor him and we meet him in them."