Weekly Letter from the Pastor

September 22, 2024

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

On Monday evening I am departing for a 10-day pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi with Father JM Patilla and about two dozen pilgrims. We will remember you all at the many churches and shrines that we will be visiting.

You will see on page 6 of the bulletin a pie chart that explains and highlights the parish financials for the fiscal year that ended on June 30. You will also note that we will be including a weekly notice of the contributions for the previous week. Address any concerns or questions as noted there. We are grateful for the management and oversight of our temporal affairs by Fran DeMuria ably assisted by the parish accountant David Muldowney. Likewise, the Parish Financial Council offers wise counsel and strong support in the management of our finances, investments, and capital needs and improvements.

Over the next few weeks, both the state and federal departments of homeland security will be visiting our parish, analyzing our self-study, and making recommendations for improvements to the security of our church and school facilities. We are eligible for grants from each agency to improve security procedures, technology, and emergency systems.

We should also be hearing about the NJ Natural Gas grant to upgrade and replace the HVAC systems for the entire complex.

Both of these grant opportunities will potentially make a significant impact here.

Though it might seem merely cosmetic, we are hoping to replace the carpet in the church with a better grade of carpet. What we have now is difficult to keep clean, and is wearing badly. We have a $28,000 estimate for the project, however, that price tag is considerably more expensive than we had envisioned.

You might notice that we have lined a soccer pitch for the use of our students and school teams on the south lawn outside the main wing of the school.

With a few minor bumps, the school is off to a great start. This Friday we host a diocesan event for the seven Catholic Schools in Northern Monmouth County. We are happy to show off our facilities and to host the diocesan event here.

I hope everyone has a great week. I will write from Rome next week.
Fr. Garry