Campaign for Enhanced Facilities

Enhanced Parish Facilities:

After nine months of prayer and parish-wide discussion, the members of the Pastoral Council, the School Advisory Council, and the Finance Council unanimously recommended moving forward with a capital campaign for enhanced parish facilities.

This news was greeted last Sunday in church by applause--a good sign that people are ready to support this project after a decade of dreaming about it. Registered parishioners should have received an informational letter this past week but the campaign logistics won't begin until January and the three-year pledge cycle sometime shortly afterwards. If all goes well, we would hope to break ground on the addition in June 2020.

Some people may wish to make an initial gift to this campaign before the end of 2018 for tax purposes. We will start accepting capital campaign donations both online and by check very soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to donate, please write out and deliver a separate check to “Holy Family Catholic Church” clearly indicating “capital campaign” in the memo line. Please make sure that any contribution to this campaign is above and beyond your regular support for the ongoing operations of our parish.
 
A frequently asked question has been about Chesterton Academy as the idea of a potential collaboration was a late addition to our brainstorming. Their board has discerned a different direction so they won't be a part of our project.

New Personnel:

A second round of applause greeted the news that decades after nuns left our parish, we will see the return of sisters to Holy Family! The Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus  are a recently formed group of sisters based in New Ulm. They will be sending sisters to our parish starting in the Fall of 2020.
 
What will the sisters do? It remains to be seen who will be sent and what skills they will have as we are still a year and a half away from their arrival. The sisters will work in both church and school. What is clear from our side is that we would never replace any of our current staff just to make room for a sister. If there is a staff opening at that time, we would certainly see if a qualified sister is available. There are plenty of things to be done here without replacing anyone: creating a sort of campus ministry at HFA, parish youth group and young adult ministry, etc.
 
Where will the sisters live? The St. Joseph campus of St. Gabriel parish in Hopkins has an abandoned convent with 18 bedrooms. Structurally it is in good shape but internally it is a bit of a disaster. We will use the coming year to restore it as the future home of the sisters. They preferred it instead of a house near Holy Family as it is already designed as a convent (with chapel, etc.) and they see becoming their main base in the Twin Cities. As God has blessed them with many vocations, they intend to fill it with sisters! Some sisters will work in Hopkins and in other apostolates or undertake further studies--we can't be greedy and have them all at Holy Family!

Please join me in thanking God for the many ways He is blessing our parish. There is much work for us to do to cooperate with these blessings—so let’s get started!

-Fr. Joseph Johnson"

It is clear that our current facilities do not provide adequate space for parish or school activities.
 
An expansion could allow space for: more parish meeting rooms, a parish library, extra classrooms for Holy Family Academy, and a large multi-purpose space which would function as gym, auditorium, theater, and event space for parish festival, Spring dinner, etc.

Please pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance with this project!

Come Holy Spirit!

Enlighten our minds and hearts as we seek Your wisdom
to guide our efforts for the future of our parish.
Make us grateful for the sacrifices of those who came before us
and whose legacy of faith we have inherited.
Inspire us with ways to strengthen our future
as a witness of the Gospel in the Twin Cities
and Your instrument for the formation
of the next generation of Christians.
May the Holy Family of Nazareth be our model
and may we always live united in charity
with Jesus at the center of our lives.

Amen.