August 22nd, 2004
Hot Asphalt,Cool Church
Catholics
in the Political Life
First the Democrats, now the Republicans...the national conventions
get people talking about the issues that will affect our future as a
nation. If you’d like some thoughtful input on our duties and
responsibilities as Catholic Americans, you can see the text of “Catholics
in the Political Life” online. Go to the diocesan web site www.drvc.org
and click on the political life link.
More
Money from the Diocese
Thanks to more parishioners giving to the Catholic Ministries Appeal,
we just got another rebate check of $ 377.40 bringing the total rebate
to $6,218.35 so far. If we meet our goal, we’ll get over $18,000
back! So if you haven’t made a donation to the appeal, please
do so this week. Click here
for more info. We’re at 68% of our goal.
At
College?
At St. Brigid’s we like to stay in touch through
e-mail “letters from home.”
Once a person has an e-mail address at school (or if he/she uses a personal
address), please let us know what it is so we can include them when
we write.
Here's a handy college link so you
can send this info online.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
August 8: Do It Anyway!
August 1: Parking Lot Joys!
July 25:"Doh!"
July 18: Taking Church Home
July 11: Seven Eleven
July 4th: Independence Day
June 27: God Bless Father
George
June 20: Our New Priests
June13:Missing you
June 6: Farewell Father
Leonard
May 30: Going & Coming
& Going
May 23: P.O.P.S.
May 16:
Celebrating
Our Parish
May 9: Facing the Future
May2: Resurrection Sequel
April 25: Chapel Design
April 18: Oh what a week!
April 11: Easter Life!
April 4: Palms & Passion
March 28: Plenty Good Room
March 21: More Passion
March 14: Reconciliation
March 7: A sequel from Mel?
Feb 29: Come to
Life!
Feb 22:
An Adventure to Life
Feb15: A rose
by another name?
Feb 8: If at first...
Feb 1: Our Patron Saint
Jan 25:A View From Inside
Jan 18: Our School
Jan 11: Baptism with Fire
Colums from 2003
Columns from 2002
Ever
since the parking lot at the school was paved, we’ve been asking
folks to help cover the cost of the asphalt by “buying” their
own ton. So far we’ve sold 82 tons -- and we’re giving a lovely
asphalt certificate to each donor. Thanks to all who are helping us pay
the bills.
As I mentioned previously, we were
able to do this job because of the generosity of Dominic Iannucci who
donated his men and machines. However we had to pay for new curbs (which
we did a year ago) and for having the old lot scarified (that is, ground
up); we paid for the catch basins and pipes, and of course for the asphalt.
Here’s what the bills look like:
Curbs: $18,000 (already paid)
Asphalt: $42,479
Scarifying: $30,000
Materials: $ 1,529
TOTAL COST: $92,008
The summer has been relatively
cool (no 90 degree days) so we haven’t really needed a fully working
air conditioning system. That’s good because our church air conditioning
system isn’t fully working! That’s bad because we’ve
got to replace parts and fine tune the system. We’re trying to muffle
the loud rumbling sound of the air conditioner too.
And just when we think we’ve
got all the bills we’re going to get, we just got an evaluation
of the school roof and found out that one section may need to be replaced.
This could cost as much as $100,000. Let’s hope not ‘cause
we don’t have $100,000.
What we DO have is our next “dividend”
from the Millennium Fund. Last year we received $88,000. This coming fiscal
year we can spend an additional $96,000. Of course the plan was to spend
this on painting the interior of the church, fixing up the pews, etc.
but unless we can raise some extra money for the big bills, we might be
using some Millennium money to help pay these. I’ll be meeting with
the parish Finance Committee and Building & Grounds committee in September
to get advice on this.
You are Person
