The Parish

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A Tough Situation

Reprinted from the Bulletin of  11/05/2006

   It’s pretty clear from national surveys and studies that not every Catholic comes to Mass every weekend. We don’t have figures on that sort of thing at St. Julie, but in the interests of last Sunday’s message reaching the widest possible number of Mass-going parishioners, I am reprinting it here in the bulletin. Thank you for your kind attention to this serious matter.

30 Sunday Ordinary Time B
Homily 10-29-06

The road leading out of Jericho is the final fifteen-mile leg on the way to Jerusalem. That stretch of road is the staging area for beggars who are hitting up pilgrims on the way to the holy city, pilgrims who would have the mood and the means to give alms.

That’s where we meet Bartimaeus. He’s a blind beggar who, surprisingly, does not beg Jesus for alms. Already having the insight to acknowledge the Lord as Son of David—the Messiah—he begs to see, to use his eyes.

Like Bartimaeus, I am in the position of a beggar. I am asking for your help to see our way through a tough situation.

Most families, most households, operate on a budget, as does our parish. Over the last five years, in the ordinary operation of ministry and service we have been fiscally conservative. We have done well, always coming in at the end of the year in the black.

But, in this first quarter of the new fiscal year we are already $25,000 behind budget. If this trend continues, we will obviously be $100,000 in the red.

How has this happened? Two things have contributed to this situation.

First of all, the parish has been hit with a critical increase in some of our ordinary costs.

For example:
the benefit assessment by the Archdio cese increased 23%
utilities increased 13% —
this is even after last year’s increase of 207%
maintenance costs also increased by 50%.

These costs and their increases are what they are. We can’t get away from them.

Second, we had a fantastic response to the Archdiocesan Annual Appeal. We came close to reaching our target of $67,000. That’s a phenomenal amount of money for St. Julie parishioners. Thank for that generous, sacrificial response.

However, that money goes directly to the Archdiocese and it more than likely cut into the Sunday giving patterns of people—because when you compare this year to last year, the average number of households using envelopes remains the same, but overall the total amount given to the parish in the envelopes is down.

This is understandable. Everyone’s expenses are going up. However, Sunday giving provides 75% of our ordinary income.

The combination of unavoidable rising costs coupled with a decrease in giving puts the parish in a very challenging situation.

Four years ago, I asked the staff to find ways to cut expenses. They did. We managed to save $20,000. Since then we have continued to be frugal.

But in the light of the current situation, the staff will engage in another round of cost cutting. In doing so, we have to be realistic—we are probably not going to find $100,000 worth of expenses to trim.

Some would say this is not the time to be talking about money—with reports of pastors and business managers accused of mismanagement and stealing. Here at St. Julie we have been found to be in full compliance with the financial best practices of the Archdiocese, and the finance council of the parish—made up of parishioners—regularly reviews our books.

They, the finance council, advised me to bring this to your attention.

If all those households who are giving to St. Julie increase their weekly Sunday donation by $5.00 the need will be met. Of course, for each household, that amounts to an increase of $20 a month—which might be a trip to MacDonald’s for a family of four, or perhaps four special coffees at Starbucks.

With the cuts we will make and with the sacrifice of an additional $5.00 each week we will pull out of the hole. Jesus offers us an extreme gift, a radical vision encompassing trust, hope, challenge and sacrifice.

Beggars become followers and his followers change the world.

They say beggars can’t be choosers. I am a beggar and I choose. I choose Christ and his people.

It is a privilege for your sake, to be a beggar along the way.

Rev. Steven Lanza
10/29/2006