Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of Saint Benedict:

This weekend we are launching the Annual Catholic Appeal in our parish. While we normally do so in February with the rest of the diocese, because we were in the midst of the Faith to Move Mountains campaign we were granted an extension.

Traditionally our parish has been very generous with the ACA, as we seem to get the necessary connection between our work on the local level and the needs of the diocese as a whole. I was happy to support this appeal as a lay parishioner in the diocese, continue to do so as a priest, and certainly I encourage each of our families to make even a small donation, so as to serve to connect us to the work of the church as a whole.

I have not given any updates on the progress of the Faith to Move Mountains campaign quite frankly because I hadn’t received any. I was reticent, then, to launch the Annual Catholic Appeal without some data or feedback on the other. What I do have to report is not exactly great news. Of the $1.25 million goal of our parish we have pledged to date $400,177. I know I haven’t pushed it of late, but I do hope that we will be able to nudge closer to the goal. I honestly never expected us to get there for a number of reasons. Of course, this means that our return from the campaign will be less than we had hoped. Either way, there will be another campaign push towards the end of the year.

Hopefully we can make goal, yet again, on the ACA. Our return on this campaign, while much more modest, is always a helpful addition for special projects.

On the topic of special projects we will soon be sending out the tickets for the annual 50-50 raffle, which is connected to the Carnival (Sept. 15th– 17th). Last year we dedicated the proceeds of the raffle and the carnival to improvements in the school, especially a new dedicated science lab. I am happy to report that the lab will be installed in July. We have done all of the preliminary work here. The lab is designed and built off-site and then shipped and assembled in a matter of days. Once we have the lab in place, we will have an open house for the parish so that everyone gets a chance for a walk through.

This year the proceeds of the raffle will go towards improving security in the buildings. The state offers to the schools an annual security grant (though this year it is in jeopardy, along with the bussing and school nurse program in their annual budget dance in Trenton). This past year we used the grant to upgrade the door access system for the school. We are going to augment that system beyond what the grant money allowed and also extend that to the church and parish office side of the building as well. In short, we will go to a fully keyless entry to the school. This way we can control who has access to the building and when. At this point we actually have no idea exactly who has keys to access the building. Within a few weeks there will be no key access to the building except by emergency personnel.

I hope everyone’s summer is off to a good start. School closed Friday and the many summer programs and projects are set to get underway.

Blessings for the week ahead,
Fr. Garry