Parish Update – Friday, July 29
Happy final Friday of the month from the friendly skies! I’m writing this week’s missive from 37,000 feet above Idaho at the moment, though by the time you read it I should be safely back on the ground. (If not, well that might be a problem!) I’m looking forward to getting back to some cooler weather – yes, you read that right: cooler. It was 108 degrees where I was in the Diocese of Yakima this week. And let me tell you, I felt every bit of it.
It was a whirlwind trip to the region as part of the
Catholic Extension Society of America’s Mission Immersion Program for Pastors to visit the migrant workers in the farming fields that I wrote about last week. I’m still processing everything from the past three days, so I’ll have a full recap of the trip for you next week but I can briefly say that it was a truly eye-opening – and heart-opening – experience. It was a great blessing to be present to hear the stories of just some of the many people who help feed us and those who minister to and alongside them.
Looking ahead to the weekend and the
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, I’m willing to bet you’ll recognize the first line from the first reading:
“Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” It’s one of the verses of Sacred Scripture that has made it into the popular lexicon and it’s not uncommon to hear it used in everyday conversation. My mother, like most Catholic mothers, I suppose, was famous for saying to us children whenever we got a little too full of ourselves.
While we most often use the word vanity to mean excessive pride in oneself, it actually comes from the Hebrew word “hebel,” which means vapor or puff of wind, signifying something fleeting or insubstantial. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes from which it comes was aiming to show that despite one’s wisdom or knowledge, the only certainty was death and thus one should make the best of the present day. Granted, that’s not the most optimistic view of life, but the author, who writes in the name of King Solomon (though he wasn’t really Solomon), is working to help others see that this world is transitory and we would be best advised not to get too caught up in ourselves but rather keep our hearts fixed on the Lord. It was an odd way to convey his message, but you have to admit he came up with a memorable phrase nonetheless.
Hearing this famous passage is an opportunity for us to reflect on the fleeting nature of our life. What are we obsessed with? Is it all about me, and my wants and desires? Or can I work to cultivate a more "others-centric" view, one that keeps the Lord in proper relationship with my heart? To live with true happiness we should strive to look to that which lasts and is not that which is gone with a “puff of wind.”
Here’s what’s happening this week:
• We invite you to please join us for Mass this weekend. If you’d like to join us in person, we welcome you on Saturday at 5 p.m., or Sunday at 7, 9, and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. You can also join us via our
livestream on Sunday at 9 a.m. on both our Facebook and YouTube pages. You can find the link to the livestream at
www.ctrcc.com/live-stream, and in addition, you’ll find there both a worship aid and a link to the Scripture readings to follow along with Mass. And you can make your weekly offertory contribution online at
www.ctrcc.com/donate.
• I made an announcement about it last week at all the masses, but let me again remind parents that
registration for the upcoming Religious Education year is underway now. Please be sure to register your children now – we’ll be closing the registration period in two weeks on Aug. 15 so don’t delay. … We have a variety of options for days for both younger children (Pre-K3 through 6th grade) as well as junior and senior high students (7th-12th grade). We’ve got all the details you need readily available on the RE and Youth Ministry websites:
www.ctrcc.com/re-registration for the younger grades and
www.ctryouth.com/registration for the older students, or simply follow the links below… You can sign up not only your children for classes, but also please sign up yourself to be a catechist or aide. We’ll provide you with the necessary training and support, but we need you to be a good steward of your time and gifts and join us in this vital ministry to pass on the faith to the next generation.
We’re already seeing an uptick in registrations this year, and that’s a good thing. I suspect this is due to a number of families returning who may have stepped aside during the pandemic. We welcome everyone back, as it is imperative that our children (and adults!) learn and grow in their knowledge and love of the faith. … I know of a couple of parishes in our general area of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston that have moved to a “whole family catechesis” model for Religious Education. There is a growing trend to require parents to be present when the children are being taught (as opposed to dropping them off in a classroom for someone else to teach them) so as to involve the entire family in the role of primary educators of their children in the way of the faith. While we have not yet adopted such a model here, I do see some benefits of it and we’ll continue to evaluate what is the best way we can use our resources of personnel (our volunteer catechists) to partner with parents in teaching the faith. … For now, however, let’s be sure to get all the children registered for the RE year that begins in mid-September.
Pardon the length and “number nerdiness” of what follows, but we began a new fiscal year on July 1 and I want to take the opportunity this week to look at the financial state of our community. One of the chief responsibilities of a pastor is sound management of the Church’s temporal goods and prudent and balanced management of all financial responsibilities. … I can report that we are in good financial health at CtR. Our budget is tight, of course, but it is balanced, our bills are being paid, and we are in good standing with all our Archdiocesan obligations.
The people of CtR are primarily responsible for that being the case. You continue to be generous stewards of God’s gifts to you and in turn we do our best to be good stewards of the gifts you share with the Church. I thank each of you for your continued sacrifice, week in and week out, to support the ministries of the parish. Only with your support are we able to do the work of the gospel. Thank you very much.
As you might expect, the last few years have been like the old Texas Cyclone roller coaster at AstroWorld: lots of ups and downs, sharp turns, and a bumpy ride, but always thrilling. Our actual offertory collection for this past year from the previous year was down by less than 1 percent ($23,119). … Given that we were still ramping up with people coming back to Mass after/during the pandemic for most of that fiscal year and that the economy is in a down cycle at the moment, to be essentially flat one year over the other in offertory collections is a blessing. Many parishes are seeing a significant decrease from the previous year so we are grateful for the support of everyone at CtR.
As you can see in the pews, most people – with a few exceptions – are back to attending Mass in person. We’re probably at roughly 85 percent of pre-pandemic attendance levels. I’d say about 5 percent are those who have health concerns and so are not venturing out much. That’s certainly understandable and we welcome them via our
livestream, which continues to draw many viewers each week.
It’s the other 10 percent that gives me concern. It seems they have fallen out of regular practice of the faith and have “drifted away.” That’s troublesome not from a budgetary point, but for the salvation of souls. That’s why the Church exists. As the Church, we need to engage them. Why have they left? What has changed? What are they seeking? … I’m asking each of us to reach out to someone you know who has stepped away from the Church and invite them back to the table of the Lord. We are ramping up our evangelization efforts in our parish office to help us do just that. Beyond any spreadsheet, that’s what the Lord will judge us on.
As we look to the new fiscal year, we are projecting a 1 percent increase from our 2021-22 actual (not budgeted) numbers. Our total budgeted income for this new fiscal year is $5,577,165. Of this amount we anticipate Sunday and Holy Day collections to be $3,635,300 with the remaining income generated from facility rentals, R.E. registrations, investment income, and other donations. Our total budgeted expenses of $5,427,511 are allocated in the following ways:
• Ministries: $1,948,148 (36 percent): All expenses associated with nearly every one of our more than 80 ministries, including Religious Education and catechetical formation departments (children, Youth Ministry, and Adult Faith Formation, including RCIA), as well as Liturgy, Music and Social outreach to services like CAM and others.
• Parish Administration: $1,104,949 (20 percent): All costs associated with the operations of the parish office (personnel, benefits, Information and Technology, equipment and supplies).
• Plant Operations: $899,295 (17 percent): All costs associated with the maintenance of our facilities, including utilities and general maintenance and repairs of buildings and grounds.
• Archdiocesan Obligations: $360,700 (7 percent): Building Fund Tax and Cathedraticum tax (assessed to every parish to help pay for the administrative departments of the Archdiocese).
• Capital Expenditures/Stewardship: $903,900 (17 percent): All costs associated with interests on our bank loans, our Capital Campaign and ongoing Stewardship efforts.
• Pastoral: $210,519 (4 percent): All costs associated with the priests, deacons and rectory.
We will continue to keep a close eye on our discretionary spending and investments, just as you as parishioners do in your individual household budget. We always speak of the parish as being a family and so in a sense we collectively are one household – it’s just a really big house! I ask every household to review their own tithe to the parish, and if possible, make adjustments. I have done so myself by logging into my Faith Direct account and increasing my monthly online giving by 5 percent over last year. I invite you to do the same on a level that works in your own household budget.
One area of our overall budget that has had to increase is health care benefits for our employees. Every parish and school in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is facing a 5 percent increase in health care costs this year to our group rate. It has gone up every year for the past six years – it has never gone down. In fact, we’ve seen more than a 50 percent rise in health care insurance premiums just since 2015 alone. It’s a staggering rise, and for us it amounts to $430,454 of our total budget. … It’s important, of course, and we want to be fair and just with our employees, but just as you see costs increase in your personal budgets at home, so too do they increase in our parish home. We can’t escape those expenses; they are happening to every parish in the Archdiocese. Again, no pastor is happy about any of this, but it is what it is.
On a more joyous note, I’m happy to report that our
CtR Catholic School was once again 100 percent self-funded this past year, and we have again budgeted for it to be in this coming year. I know of some parishes that subsidize their school several hundred thousands of dollars. We do not. … It also contributes an additional $10,000 a month to help out on our debt retirement. My thanks to our school administration, parents, and school benefactors for working hard to make CtR School a success both in the classroom and on the bottom line.
In the coming weeks I’ll share with you some additional information on our debt service as we look to the future. We’re still processing some numbers from the Archdiocese as they close out the fiscal year and return that information to us. Finally, thanks to Nora Pena, Parish Business Manager, Deacon Kerry Bourque, Parish Administrator, and our hard working Finance Council, and our parish staff, all of whom have done great work in helping us be good stewards of all our resources. They are parishioners like you, and work tirelessly to see that we can meet our needs now and plan effectively for the future. … Additionally, by the end of this coming month we’ll have our full annual report with more budget details and the data from the annual pastoral report both on our parish website and sent to you via Flocknote. We’re happy to share it with you. I promise to be as transparent as I possibly can be about our financial picture. You have a right to know that your gifts are being used wisely and fairly to build up the Kingdom of God here on earth. If you have any questions, I’m happy to speak with you about it.
As mentioned above, the reason CtR exists is to help people encounter Christ. And thus it is that the Church relies on your generosity to help make that possible – from paying the electric bill, to providing healthcare for employees, to stocking bathrooms with toilet paper, to buying books and rosaries for Religious Education and everything in between. As your pastor, I’m humbled by your support week in and week out, and ask that you continue to offer it in the future so that we might all serve the Lord with gladness. May God bless you for your support of CtR.
Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, friends of Jesus whose feast day is today, pray for us!
Peace, Fr. Sean