Voice of Father McEnhill

Other Information
 2008-2009 Financial Summary

 

 

November 8th

We as members of the parish send our best wishes to all of the members of our Confirmation class who are now welcomed as full members of the Church and as full members of Our Lady of Refuge Parish. We are very proud of you and I pray that this sacrament will inspire you to use your talents and energy for the Lord’s good. I want to invite you to volunteer to serve our parish in some way. There are many activities for you to get involved. All of you know Suzanne Barcewicz, our youth minister. She will be happy to help you get connected so that you can share the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are within you with our parish community.

I congratulate you on this important step in your life and pray that you will continue to grow in your faith.

Fr. McEnhill
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October 25th

More blessings continue to come to our parish. This is seen in the generosity expressed by our parishioners in our efforts to eliminate our parish debt. We focus on this in October as we have our Debt Reduction Sunday. Many continue to help us by using the monthly debt reduction envelope. Our total raised as of last Wednesday is $39,551. This is an impressive amount. With more donations still coming in, I am looking for-ward to possibly sending a check for $45,000 to the Archdiocese in a few weeks to be paid on our debt. This support is wonderful. It helps the parish immensely. I thank you.

Father McEnhill
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October 11th

Debt Reduction
Today is Debt Reduction Sunday as the Finance Council and I ask you to support the parish’s effort to eliminate its debt. I thank those who contributed today. Every gift helps us reach our goal. If you were not able to contribute today you can still participate by bringing your gift next weekend or mailing it to the parish office.

Clergy Help
Our parish has been blessed because there are four priests I can call on who have made a commitment to help me when the need arises. Fr. Paul Duda has been assigned by the Archdiocese to assist the parish. He is on the faculty of SS Cyril and Methodius Seminary (across the street). He replaces Fr. Greg Tokarski who became pastor at St. Clare of Assisi Parish, Farmington Hills. Fr. Richard Rakoczy is a senior priest of the Archdiocese who lives in the area and graciously has made himself available to help. Fr. Gene Simon has been with us for a few years and he will continue to help. And I am always grateful to Msgr. Stanley Milewski for consistently saying the Thursday morning Mass and occasionally helping on Sunday.

Their help is very valuable to me personally. I am particularly aware of this when my teaching assignment at Sacred Heart Semi-nary prevents me from saying the morning Mass. I also serve on a number of committees on the Arch diocesan level. Their help makes things a little easier and makes a day off and vacation days possible. I thank them and ask that you thank them for their service to our parish.

Wednesday Morning Mass
Starting this week the school Mass will return to the 9am time. A year ago we had to move to the 9:15am time because of the school bus schedule. This year the schedule is better and we can go back to the 9am time.

Fr. Gerald McEnhill
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October 4th

2008-2009 FINANCIAL REPORT
Fr. McEnhill’s Comments

The Financial report for this fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009 is printed on page 3 of this paper. Considering the challenges that our economy has placed upon all of us especially in this past year, our parish has done well and we remain strong financially. This is because our finance council, Marge McKindles, our bookkeeper and I watch very closely our income and expenses.

As always, a financial report requires some explanations. I will try to summarize these for you. The most noticeable line is the net loss of the parish for the year is almost $120,000. This is not as overwhelming as first appears. It accounts for the capital expenditures made by the parish. The biggest item in this was the electrical work done for the lighting system in our church and our social hall. We also remodeled the parish offices, re-paired a cold air intrusion problem in the Mitchell Family Life Center, did concrete paving work on the campus and replaced the roof over the school library. The biggest help to us was that we used the remaining surplus from our 2005-2006 fiscal year. What was income in 2005-2006 became an expense in 2008-2009. Also, we did not pay as much on our debt as we did in previous years. And the parish subsidy to the school was reduced an-other $30,000. This freed up some money for us. We remain dedicated to supporting our school. It is part of our mission. Our subsidy is 11.5% of our parish income. This is far below the Archdiocesan maximum guideline of 40%.

You will also notice that our Sunday Collection and total income is down. We pray that this will reverse and that things will get better for all of us. In the meantime, no major capital expenditures are planned for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The only projects of the 2009 summer were the spending of the auction proceeds on technology, remodeling classrooms and remodeling a bathroom in the school. This is all part of the Parents Club budget and is not included in the parish financial report.

We keep making progress on retiring our debt. The $39,000 payment is the result of your donations on debt reduction Sunday and through monthly debt reduction donations many of you make throughout the year. As a result our debt currently stands at $211,383. We had to pay over $12,000 in interest on this debt this year. We need to eliminate our debt and interest expense and move on. We will have our debt reduction collection next weekend. I ask you to be generous.

You were very generous in your support of the Catholic Services Appeal. However, we are still $9,000 short of our required goal. If you can help by making a pledge or adding to your pledge, it will be greatly appreciated.

I would like to suggest that you consider making a monthly direct deposit from your bank to our parish bank. This eliminates writing checks to us and allows you to help us when you are on vacation or away for an extended period of time. We really rely on and need your regular donation. Call the parish office to make this arrangement.

I thank you for your financial support of the parish. This generosity goes beyond the parish as you have supported so well the work of the Church at large. Not included in this financial report are the many donations made to the Propagation of the Faith, the Summer Mission Appeal, the Holy Father’s Collection, the Catholic Relief Services, the Campaign for Human Development, the Retirement Fund for Religious and Priests, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Catholic Services Appeal. These amount to about $150,000.

In addition to your financial support, in the name of the entire staff I thank you and your involvement in the life of Our Lady of Refuge Parish. The many different ways that so many of you con-tribute your time and talent are very evident and it speaks well for the future growth of our faith community. It is very clear to me that we are moving forward. May the Lord continue to shower his blessing upon Our Lady of Refuge Parish.

Fr. McEnhill
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Rev: 11/9/09