Partners in the Gospel
Other than personnel, we do not anticipate any immediate changes when our parish family takes effect on July 1. Many other parish families do have to adjust their Mass schedules, because the number of priests assigned to them makes it impossible to keep their current schedule. With two parishes forming our family plus 2-1/3 priests assigned, our Mass schedule should be able to remain the same for the time being. Later on, the parish family may need to look at Mass schedules, taking into consideration attendance, number of lay ministers available, etc.
We do face one immediate challenge: priest housing. A parish has three options: 1) provide an onsite rectory independent from parish offices, 2) provide off-site living such as renting an apartment, or 3) provide the priest a housing allowance, and let him determine his housing. Holy Spirit Parish has a small house, but it is certainly not large enough for two priests. Our parish has always provided the housing allowance, and this has worked fine for all the previous pastors. However, the allowance, set by the archdiocese is no longer adequate to cover the cost of rentals in the area. When I was assigned here three years ago, I was told that the archdiocese wanted a rectory established, either on- or off-site. I took a long-term approach, first wanting to stabilize our parish budget. Coming out of COVID, we were still relying upon our reserves. Once the budget was stabilized and built back up, I thought we could begin setting money aside.
The need is immediate. We need a place for one of the new priests to move into by the end of June. We are looking into the possibility of renting a rectory from one of our neighboring parish families, who may now have more rectories than priests. We are also considering renting an apartment or townhouse. We will also need to furnish it. This could be a temporary solution until the parish family decides what housing would be the best permanent solution.
If any parishioners have rental properties in the area, please let me know.