The Numbers

I would like to break down over the coming weeks and months the various realities of our pastoral situation. First, the numbers. The total number of Catholic households is 3,656 and the average weekly Mass attendance, based on 2019 October, is 3,943. With the assignment of 3 priests to our new Parish Family, this means that there is only one priest for every 1,314 Sunday Mass-attending Catholics. The average priest to Mass-going Catholic ratio across the Archdiocese is 1 to 901. So, when it comes to adjusting to this reality, please try to be understanding of the priests assigned to our Family of Parishes and what is being asked of them.

I hope to have other numbers and facts for you in the coming weeks, but I am still waiting to receive all that information. Starting at the level of the raw numbers helps us to make more informed decisions about how Beacons of Light will be implemented over the coming months and years in our Family of Parishes.

On this note, we are making an adjustment this year to set us up for maximum transparency. We want to avoid trying to mislead people about how life could (not will, just could) be different in our Family of Parishes. Thus, we will be freezing endowment contributions to both the school and parish endowments. This is so that as we work toward becoming one canonical parish, truly one family, people are not caught unaware of the implications for this when it comes to finances. Which again, it is not clear what that will look like and thus why, I am being cautious in this regard.

Please continue to pray for the Beacons process and keep the other parishes in our Family in prayer as well. Prayer is our greatest asset as we discern what comes next.

Thank you to the staff who have worked to make the new office a place where the people of Holy Angels can feel cared for and respected.

Peace in Christ,

Fr. Jarred Kohn