Copy of Letter from the Pastor

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall and getting ready for the winter. As you read in the bulletin and/or website, we made the final decision to demolish the St. Anthony school building. It took a while to come to the final decision, but we have one now. It was not easy to come to that decisio
n.As you know we looked at three different possibilities for the school building: reopen, raze, or sell. For reopening we were looking at two main aspects: the number of children and financial support. As I mentioned in my last letter we had a good response, but it was not sufficient. We also looked at the cost of maintaining the building. We were spending 40,000.00 to 45,000.00 a year for basic maintenance like water and sewer, electricity, gas, insurance, and emergency repairs. Major repairs were on hol
d.Some of you asked me why we couldn’t sell it. We looked at that possibility too. If we sell the buildings, St. Anthony of Padua parish has nothing much left other than a parking lot. We need to look at the bigger picture, what we need to leave for the future generation. At least we can leave land for the
m.After enough discussion and study, the parish and finance council recommended demolishing the school building. So, I wrote to the Bishop to inform the recommendation of the Parish and Finance Council and St. Anthony Corporate Board approved the demolition of the building. It was not an easy decision, but we pray and trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we made the best decision in the given situatio
n.The next step was finding the funding for the project. The cost of the project is 289,360.00. First, we were thinking to take a loan from the bank, but three of our parishioners came forward to loan $50,000.00. When we closed the school, we had $165,675.00 remaining in the endowment. So, we decided to accept the loan of $150,000.00 at the interest rate of 2% from three parishioners with the agreement that we will pay it back in the next five years and use the endowment fund for the completion of the projec
t.Asbestos removal will be starting on October 11. If they can, they may come on an earlier date. Once they remove the asbestos, C&D Excavating will begin the demolition of the building. Thank you for patiently waiting and let us pray that everything will go well. They agreed to try to save the Cross from the top of the building, Cornerstone, and ‘Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me’ in front of the building. The starting dates and progress of the project will be published in the bulleti
n.We started our religious education program for the year. At St. Anthony, we had opening Mass and classes will begin on October 5th. At Immaculate Conception the religious education classes started at the beginning of Septembe
r
. As I mentioned in previous years at St. Anthony, every first Wednesday of the month we will have parent session at 5 pm or 7 pm. This year's theme is “Life in the Christ.” I would like to invite the entire cluster to join the Family of Faith on the first Wednesday of the mont
h.Fr. Adam Laski will be our speaker for the first parents’ session on October 5th. He is the associate pastor of Rice Lake, Birchwood, Haugen, and Dobbie and Adjutant Judicial Vicar. The topic for October is Heaven: Our final destination; the choice between Life and Death. Please come and join for the 5 pm or 7 pm session on October 5th. It will be held in the Churc
h.During October we will pray the Rosary before weekend Mass at all three parishes. We will have Baby Bottles available at Church entrance to support pregnancy resource centers. St. Francis is celebrating patron saint day on October 2nd at 11 am. Immaculate Conception parish will be celebrating the patron saint day on December 8 at 4:30 p
m.In my last letter, I mentioned that we were in the process of installing an automatic door opener at Immaculate Conception. In early September an automatic Access System was installed in our front doors and elevator door. So, these three doors will be opened every day 6 am to 6 pm. You can visit Church and pray any time between 6 am and 6 p
m.Some of you asked me about the new lighting at St. Anthony Church. The lights are here, but there is a part missing, so we are waiting for them to com
e.Soon we will be in the Month of November to celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. On All Souls’ Day, we have a tradition of celebrating Mass at the St. Cecelia Cemetery. Please join on November 2nd at 11 am and have soup and sandwiches at the parish hal
l.In the month of October, let us ask for the intercession of our Mother Mary for our cluster. Please come half an hour early for the weekend Mass, so we can pray together the Rosary. June 19, 2022, Corpus Christi Sunday, was the kick-off for the three-year Eucharistic Revival program. Let us pray that we will grow in love for Eucharis
t.I would like to say a thank you to all of you for your generous weekly contribution and all those who are involved in ministries. Let us join in prayer, especially at the Eucharistic celebratio
n.Sincerely yours in Chris
t
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  Fr. Shaji Joseph Pazhukkatha