Dear Parishioners:
This week Bishop Tobin announced with great joy that as of January 28, the Grateful for God’s Providence Diocesan Capital Campaign has raised over $51 Million. This diocesan campaign received nearly $20 million generated in Special Leadership Gifts and Bequests, with $7.1 million generated through a share from area parishes. A total of $37,270,618 was pledged from 16,240 Catholic individual parish families. A total of 185 priests in the diocese pledged their support of $1,729,897 to the campaign. In offering his thanks and gratitude, Bishop Tobin also spoke of the campaign’s effort to strengthen the diocesan Church and its parishes as the Diocese of Providence prepares to celebrate our 150th anniversary in two years
Of the campaign’s goal, $30 million is earmarked to support the diocese. This includes: $8 million for an endowment for seminarian education; $8 million for an endowment to support retired priests; $5 million for an endowment to benefit Catholic school tuition assistance; $5 million to bolster the Catholic Charities and Social Services endowment and its operations and also $4 million to help pay for renovations to the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul.
We continue here at OLM to move toward our combined campaign goal of $2 Million. We have received close $1.6 million in pledges and gifts from just 353 parish families. We are truly grateful to those parishioners who have made the sacrifice and been so generous in supporting this critical campaign. We continue to receive pledges and I am confident we can exceed our goal. If you have not yet made your pledge to the campaign, I encourage you to please do so. The great success of the Diocesan campaign across the state is a sign of the vitality of our local Church and the commitment of many Catholics. Your support of this much needed effort to support our parish and local Church is also a sign of your commitment to Our Lady of Mercy Parish. So please consider making a pledge of $4,000 or more, payable over four years.
Over these many months I have been humbled by the great generosity of so many parishioners who were so supportive of the campaign. So many made sacrificial gifts because they are truly hopeful for our wonderful parish and are quite willing to generously support her future. However, to be truly successful we need every parish family to make a sacrifice and support the parish they call home. We cannot do it with just a third of the parish, so please make a pledge today! The good news is that we will soon be receiving some of the campaign funds already collected.
This past week we met with Mr. Mark Saccoccio of Saccoccio and Associates Architects, who is advising us about the many projects to be undertaken at OLM over the next four years. Among the priorities are the replacing of the original boilers in the two convents and the Rectory. They are all over 50 years old, not too efficient and usually break down on the coldest days of the year! Also the roofs on the two convents and the rectory are all over 30 years old and badly need replacing. You can see the shingles from the convent roofs falling off and ask Fr. Barrow about the leak in his bedroom in the Rectory!
These projects and all the others are very needed and the campaign will help finance them and secure our parish’s future. All the projects go out to bid as we follow the Diocesan protocols and guidelines for capital improvement projects. Mr. Saccoccio is working with Mr. Paul Anderson, OLM Facilities Director, and also with the Diocesan Building Commission and Facilities Director in securing the right contractors to help us with the projects.
I thank those who so willingly pledged their support and generous gifts to the Our Faith, Our Future Campaign. We also thank Joe and Carol Cavanagh and Michael and Brooke O’Connell for their tremendous leadership of the campaign.
I wish all our students and teachers a restful and healthy winter break this week. Enjoy it because Lent begins when you return! Please look at the Lenten schedule in the bulletin. Be well. Do Good! God Bless. Happy President’s Day!