In this week’s bulletin you will find a copy of the Annual Parish Financial Report. This is an abbreviated version of the much longer report that has been sent to Bishop Tobin. The report was reviewed and approved by our Parish Trustees, Finance Council and Auditors. The report indicates that our ordinary revenue has increased and our expenses flattened out a bit. The report is for the Fiscal Year ending on June 30, 2013. This year there was an extra weekend in the fiscal year which 
accounts for some of the increase in collection income. But the addition of the Annual Collection and the Outreach Collection have also helped to increase the ordinary income of the parish. I hope you find the report helpful in reviewing the financial situation of our parish.Over all we are in good fiscal and financial shape and the trends all seem to be in the positive direction. We have overcome the deficits of the last few years and I hope that this continues in the years to come. Of course, none of this is possible without your generous financial support of the parish by giving to the weekly collection, the Outreach, the Building and Grounds collections, and the Annual Collection. Thank you! Most of this support comes from about 600 of the 2,200 registered families at OLM who regularly use their budget envelopes.
And also it comes from the 70 or so families who now take advantage of the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) system. This is an online way of giving directly to the parish and can be accessed by a link located on the parish web page. Check it out and sign up. Fr. Connors and I did and now our contributions to OLM are directly debited out of our own bank account to OLM. It’s a safe and secure way of giving to the parish that I highly recommend.
The Annual Parish Report has been sent to Bishop Tobin for his review as required by Canon Law. We are also required to send to the Bishop the Status Animarium. This is a report that give the status of the “souls” of the parish and the sacramental statistics. This is done annually by every parish in the Diocese. The OLM Status Animarum indicates that we have at total of 2,256 registered families with 7,478 individual parishioners. The report is for the year beginning September 1, 2012 through August 31, 2013.
In that time period we baptized 40 infants into the Catholic Church, with 109 young children receiving First Holy Communion, and 196 young adults receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. 
The 196 is for two classes and two Confirmation celebrations. Just twelve couples were married at Our Lady of Mercy which is consistent with the national trend of a steep decline in the number of young couples getting married in general and even more drastic decline in couples getting married in Churches and Synagogues. Sadly, we commended forty-nine souls to God at Masses of Christian Burials. We will remember all the OLM parishioners who died over the last year at a special All Souls Mass on Saturday, November 2nd at Noon. There is more information about
that Mass in the bulletin. Overall the statistical condition of OLM Parish is pretty good. Let’s pray that we continue to attract more people to our parish and to receive the Sacraments of the Church. Our Lady of Mercy is a large, diverse and dynamic parish community and I hope and pray we continue the positive path set by all those who have gone before us.
There is good news about our parish Deacon, John Dowd. His double knee replacement surgery was a success and he has returned home. Keep him in your prayers as he continues to strengthen his ability to walk with two new knees! We hope to have him back in time for Christmas. I am off to Rome this
Sunday night for a meeting of the National Association of State Catholic Conference Directors. While there I will offer Mass for your intentions at the tomb of St. Peter this Tuesday and hope to see the Holy Father! See you in a week. God Bless! Go Pats! Go Sox!!