Town Hall Meeting | St. Monica Parish
October 26, 2023
Interim Parish Council webpage: stmonicastl.org/IPC
Meeting Objectives
- Provide an update of accomplishments towards unification since Aug 1
- Share latest parish survey results
- Get your feedback
The ‘New’ St. Monica
- 2,039 registered households
- 1,184 Mass attendees
- Parish school with 145 K-8 students and 72 pre-school students
- PSR program with 75 K-8 students
Fr. Sebastian’s immediate priorities
- Worship & Eucharist
- Spiritual & Social Community
- Welcoming Disposition & Facilities
Theme: Rebuild Our Church
Since Aug 1…
- Welcomed Fr. Sebastian, Fr. Weber and Fr Robertson to St. Monica
- Revised mass schedules at all three locations, with priests rotating each weekend
- Creation of Interim Parish Council (IPC) with representatives from each church
- St. Monica Website updated to add IPC and links to St. Richard and St. John Bosco websites
- Introduction of ‘greeters’ at church entrances before mass at St. Monica
- Formation of an initial unified Liturgy committee
- Evaluation of St. Monica facility needs
- PSR classes combined and convening on Sunday mornings at St. Monica
- Fall social events still happening at all locations, with entire parish invited to attend
- Finances at legacy St. Monica have been reviewed and steps are in place to host various fundraising events and review expenses to balance the budget at parish and school
- St. Richard has an active appeal of All Things New decision – finances and asset transfers will not occur until decision on appeal made. Other unification efforts and recognition of St. Monica as one parish continue and include St. Richard
Near-term next steps
Note that all plans are flexible and subject to change. We are prioritizing communication over perfection, so please realize that we may need to pivot or change course based on results.
- Fr Weber retires November 1st
- Weekend Mass schedule expected to remain in place until Easter; weekday mass schedule currently under review with Fr. Weber’s retirement
- Combined bulletin coming soon
- Finances of legacy St. Monica and St. John Bosco will be combined January 1st; St. Richard will remain separate while appeal is active (note that this is a change from earlier bulletin insert)
- High priority facility needs still underway
- Fundraising efforts underway at St. Monica – watch for information on ‘I Give Catholic’ campaign occurring on Giving Tuesday (Nov 28)
- Planning for Fish Frys at St. John Bosco and St. Richard during Lent
- Working on combining ministries of all three churches with a goal to complete by Summer 2024
- No current plans to shutter any church locations – all will be available for worship, prayer and social events
- Archdiocesan review of parish schools is underway, with announcements expected in January
- All Things New evaluation of parish mergers expected in 2028
Parish Survey Results
- 68 survey responses received as of October 23rd
- 60% respondents from St. Monica
- 24% from St. Richard
- 16% from St. John Bosco
- Top 3 areas of interest:
- New Parish Efforts
- Finances
- Mass Schedule
New Parish Efforts
- Goal of unified parish utilizing strengths brought by St. Monica, St. John Bosco and St. Richard legacy parishes
- Examples of Strengths:
- Welcoming atmosphere at St. John Bosco & St. Richard
- Strategic plan and Commission structure at St. Monica
- Youth sports programs at St. Richard & St. Monica
- Prioritization of unification efforts for larger parish over legacy activities – example: St. John Bosco men’s club canceling social event to help with church clean up
- Working together to “Rebuild Our Church”
Finances
- Financial statements distributed at St. Monica represented legacy St. Monica data only and did not include St. John Bosco and St. Richard finances
- Causes of deficit include:
- School converted from stewardship to tuition model in 2022-2023
- Lack of fundraising
- Student attendance lower post-COVID
- Actions to resolve include:
- Reducing expenses
- Multiple fundraising campaigns – Alumni, I Give Catholic, Corporate Matching
- Have already seen increases in Offertory gifts since October 1st
- Draft budget for 2024-25 school year being prepared – goal to bring metrics relating to parish support, tuition and expenses more in-line with other parish schools
- Not using surpluses or assets from St. John Bosco or St. Richard to resolve financial problem
- Would only be a band-aid that would be more harmful to a lot of our parishioners
- Other locations already have commitments for occupancy which will increase income and cover facility costs
- Goal is to have budget balanced at legacy St. Monica before merging finances with St. John Bosco
We recognize that it is difficult to unify the parishes while also resolving this financial issue – but we all need to persevere through it.
Mass Schedule
- Current weekend mass schedule expected to remain until Easter – expect a reduced schedule going forward with reduction in priests
- Weekday mass schedule at St. John Bosco under review with Fr. Weber’s retirement
- Concerns that Sat evening masses are competing with other area churches – our focus is on serving our parish community
- Concerns were raised relating to worship service music – not an immediate concern with unification efforts, but will remain on list of things to review once unification of parishes is complete
Feedback
- The IPC wants to hear from you!
- A series of questions were discussed at the town hall meetings
- The IPC will review those comments, along with those from the other 2 Town Hall meetings and continued survey responses, and provide more updates in early December
- Questions
- What additional efforts can we make to accelerate the unification of the three parishes?
- How can we improve our liturgical celebrations?
- What process should we use to combine ministries?
- What would make you feel more welcome?
- What else is on your mind?