October 9, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Priests of the Archdiocese gathered for a Clergy Conference last Monday and Tuesday.  The Conference is a continuation of our Archdiocese Pastoral Planning.  Our Parish has been working with St John Vianney in light of our Archdiocese Pastoral Planning. This involves St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen sharing a Pastor and an Associate  with both sites being utilized for the ministerial needs of the two faith communities.  Our Parish is also planning to begin ministry for those who are Spanish speaking given the growth in Spanish– speaking parishioners in our area.  This will include having a Mass in Spanish on Sundays.  This  year, we took an active approach by sharing our RCIA program with St. John Vianney.  St. John  Vianney had previously graciously hosted our Totus Tuus program in the summer for the youth of our Parish.  We are grateful for their hospitality and look forward to finding new ways to work together.

We continue to meet with leadership personnel of both St. John Vianney and Mary Our Queen Parishes to work out details of operations and the various needs of each Parish.

We started the replacement of the HVAC units for our Church and Cafeteria.  It will take about a month to a month and a half to have the new units installed.  We had the old air conditioning units in our Church and Cafeteria disconnected and removed last week.  Please be patient with us as we will not have air in our Church until the new units are installed.  These new units were put out to bid earlier this year in January.  As mentioned previously, the current air handlers for the Church and the cafeteria date back to the time when  it was first built in the 1960s and the condenser units are over 20 years old.  We wanted to be proactive in replacing these units.  We were initially told that the new units would arrive in November. Fortunately, the units arrived earlier, and we are now having it installed.  We were originally budgeting the replacements to be about $150,000.  Unfortunately, the replacement bid of the HVAC project was $346,600.  We secured a loan from the Archdiocese to be paid over a 10-year period.  We are in the midst of planning a minor capital campaign in the next few weeks to address this and other needs of our Parish.

The chairs and the kneelers in the Tabernacle Chapel have been sent to be re-finished/re-upholstered.  We were initially going to replace the furniture however after taking a second look at the furniture, we changed our minds as the wood of the furniture is still in good condition.  Instead, we had the chairs to be reglued together and stained with the seat and kneelers reupholstered.

The 2022 Archbishop’s Annual Appeal is beginning in our parish. You will receive an invitation from Archbishop Lucas to support the work of the Church through a personal commitment. The Annual Appeal supports the parishes, schools, and ministries across the archdiocese. I hope you will join me in making a gift to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. Our financial goal for this year’s Annual Appeal is $138,501.91 and our participation goal is 20%. As disciples of Jesus, we are invited to trust, to let go of fear and open our minds and hearts to God’s saving work.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc