FEBRUARY 25, 2007

A regularly scheduled Town Hall Meeting was held Ash Wednesday, Feb. 21 in the Church at St. Mary. Here are some of the agenda items discussed that evening:

1. Fr. Larry's good-bye Mass and final Mass at St. Mark Church was a huge success. There was sorrow at the ending parts, but hope and joy that the ministry of the Lord is being continued by Fr. Larry at his new parishes, and at our own St. John of God.

2. The sales agreement has been signed for the St. Mark plant. We are in the due diligence period, and with luck we shall receive a check by Easter. We will realize about $250,000 from the sale. From that amount, we will pay the $210,000 that we owe from the 2006 calendar year for insurance and benefits, the $23,000 we have owed for several years to the Bishop's Education Fund from a prior assessment, and the $16,000 we owe for the Cathedral renovation assessment. This will bring our debt to the Catholic Institute to just under $1 million. We will try to "freeze" that debt for the forseeable future, although it will grow naturally at about 6% per year because of the interest. By the way, we will not be charged any parish share on the sale of the assets.

3. Once we no longer own the St. Mark plant, it will reduce our operating budget by about $50,000 per year (insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc.) This will bring down our projected deficit of $100,000 by half in the coming year. As of the moment, for January and February of this year, we are operating a balanced budget - for the first time in the history of the parish, we have paid our insurance and benefits bills for two months in a row. Projections are that we will be able to do that throughout the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

4. We will be announcing the Parish Share Appeal for 2007 officially in about two weeks with the insert in the bulletin. Our original assessment was $98,000, but I appealed some of the calculations and got the diocese to reduce it to $89,000. We have been using our envelops for January and February, so we have a head start. Last year we got to keep about $15,000 tax free, and we hope this year to do even better. Watch for the info in the bulletin. This also helps us reach a balanced budget.

5. Things are working out with the "part-time priests" situation between us and St. Catherine in Crescent. You may not get to see the particular priest you would like all the time, but we have been able to cover all Mass and sacramental schedules, even though it takes a lot of driving back and forth. We are very pleased with the addition of Fr. Al and the extra help by Fr. Mike. We do miss Fr. Larry, but the new "old men" are a perfect fit for our ministry. They are beloved as well, being "Rocks boys."

6. We are still trying to update our census information and parishioner count. We will send one last envelop mailing for April to all who are on the rolls, and then for the month after no longer send envelops to those who did not respond to the "$0.00" letter. At that time, we will probably be reporting about 1,850 active families. This will save us money on mailing envelops that aren't used, paying for Pittsburgh Catholics that go unread, and be more accurate about the scope of our ministry.

7. It is now one liturgical year since we began our new Mass schedule, and attendance and participation are up, as is the spirit of worship. We did indeed make a leap in quantity and quality by conserving our resources, and we hope to grow even more in both areas as we do this a second time around. I know that last year I outlined a number of activities and strategies for our parish that have not been realized yet. But we have come a very long way with your help and God's. Thank you!