Dear St. Catherine Parish Family,
A little over two years ago, we began our Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future capital campaign to help build our new parish hall, retire our previous debt from past building projects and land acquisitions, and help build a healthier capital reserve for large facilities needs in the future. Our goal for the campaign was $4 million. To date, our pledges and gifts total almost $3.7 million with approximately $2.7 million collected already.
I am extremely excited to be able to tell you today that we just made the final payment on our bridge loan on the parish hall (cost of the hall was approximately $2.5 million)! This is really an incredible testimony to your generosity that we have been able to completely pay off the loan on the parish hall so quickly, and I am so grateful to all of you who have supported the campaign over the last two years. The parish hall, as you know, turned out beautifully, and it has been such a wonderful addition to our campus. Prior to the pandemic, we were using it just about every day for various activities for our parish and schools. And currently, we are still using it daily for Masses on the covered patio.
I am also pleased to be able to tell you that we have been able to reduce our previous debt by approximately $200k (from $1.8 million to $1.6 million). We are slowly reducing the debt, but there is still a great deal of work to be done in this regard. Our capital campaign was intended to be a three-year pledge campaign (some of you made a five-year pledge). I want to ask those of you who have not yet fulfilled your pledge to please continue supporting the campaign, so we can truly provide for the needs of our thriving parish (pledge reminder statements will be sent out again soon). Additionally, there is still an opportunity for our newer parishioners or those who did not participate in the campaign initially to make a pledge or a gift. Please contact Charissa Saenz charissas@stcatherinercc.org for more information.
I want to thank all of you, once again, who have continued to support the needs of our parish, particularly during these trying times. Please know of my prayers for all you and your families. May St. Catherine of Siena continue to intercede for our parish and schools as we seek to continue the Lord’s work even during these difficult times. And may she inspire us to truly become who the Lord is calling us to be, so we may set the world ablaze with the fire of His love.
