Celebrating Our Past, Looking to the Future
Dear Parishioners,
The 100th anniversary of the dedication of Sacred Heart Church will be in April of 2023. As I look back at the history of our parish, I am struck by where our parish was financially when our church was dedicated in 1923. The parish leadership wanted to have a “worthy” church where the liturgy could be celebrated, and they borrowed money to achieve that goal. It was the roaring twenties and things were prosperous. Little did they know that the Great Depression would arrive in 1929. The church loan was not paid off for 20 years. I say that to put our present financial situation in context.
The fiscal year 2020 - 2021 was a wonderful year for our finances. Our endowment grew. We collected money from our TTT campaign, and we got money from a government PPP loan. We ended the year by re-roofing the north end of Culemans Memorial Hall, working on the gutters for our church, and updating the parking lot on the east side of our campus. These were projects that could not be deferred.
The bills for these capital improvements came due at the beginning of 2021 - 2022. We knew this would cause our operating budget for 2021-2022 to be in the red. We used money from savings and from our endowment to offset costs. The stock market has been bearish for the last six months, so our endowment lost significant value. But we continued to collect money for the Today Tomorrow Together Campaign and we even surpassed our goal. So, we have a mixed bag of news to present to you this fiscal year.
One thing I would like to emphasize is that parish collections stayed about the same. We need to see that number grow. School assessments continue to rise, and other costs do as well.
I have not given you a lot of numbers. The financial numbers are included in the report elsewhere in this newsletter. We are being as transparent as we can. Like the parishioners of 100 years ago, we face uncertain times. In the coming year, we will dedicate the addition to our church. This is an act of faith. Let’s pray that God will continue to provide for the needs of our parish. I thank you for your continued generosity.
Blessings,
Fr. Mark, Pastor