4/18/21 Merger FAQs

4/18/21

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Thank you for the feedback and questions about the merger of our parishes. Your feedback and questions are valuable and helpful to this process. I asked members of the Advisory Council to assist with reviewing and responding. Please take a moment and review the responses to the questions we received. Thank you for your prayers and input as we move toward the July merger.

Is travel to all four churches an unnecessary burden on the priests and does this allow for interaction between parishioners and the priests?
Fr. Joachim, Fr. Canice, and I travel to our four church buildings for Sunday and weekday Masses and we are accustomed to this. The short drive
between our four churches is not burdensome. We have parish events and activities which allow for fellowship and interaction, and these kinds of
opportunities will be increasing.

Are all four parishes operating “in the black,” and are the closed schools a financial drain?
Currently, all four individual parishes are financially stable and are operating in “the black.” As for the school buildings, they are used for meeting
space, and conference space, priests’ offices, and religious education, and both closed schools are rented for athletic events and local community
events. When the new parish is formed, a major priority will be to create an efficient, well-run organization that will eliminate as much duplication
as possible and utilize group purchasing power to lower existing costs in as many areas as possible.

How will parishioners obtain sacrament records and how will sacraments be scheduled in our four parishes?
All parish records will be transferred to the Diocese of Pittsburgh Archives, and can be obtained through our parish office or by contacting diocesan
archives directly. Following the merger, we will have one parish office main number. Baptisms, weddings, and other needs can be celebrated at any
of our four churches per request.

Why are the budget projections/needs forecast not printed in the bulletin?
The budget was created for the fiscal year July 2019-July 2020, prior to the March 2020 shutdown. As of the March 2020 shutdown, the diocese
requested a monthly cash flow (simple snapshot of income and expenses by month) instead of an annual budget. Each month, we have been able
to cover all of our expenses due to the generosity of our parishioners. Currently, we have four stable parishes merging to form one new financially
stable parish.

Why have we stopped listing who the priest celebrant is for Sunday Masses?
When two of our priests were exposed to the virus, we stopped listing who the priest-celebrant was for each Mass in the bulletin. Because of the
many adjustments we make to our schedules, often with little warning, the decision was made not to list the priest-celebrant.

What are the reasons for converting the convent into a Youth Center, and what are the expected expense?
Rather than having an empty building sitting on our property, we are seeking to fill the needs of our youth and young adults by having a designated
space for events and activities. With the new hire of our Youth Minister, Joshua Snatchko, as well as our growing Young Adult Ministry, we expect
to use this space on a regular basis. It is a centrally located building that offers itself as a welcoming place for our young people—a group that has
been identified as very important to the future of our parish and faith. This project is expected to cost $14,000. Approximately half of this cost has
already been raised through generous gifts of parishioners from all four parishes.

At the time of our parish merging, will we conduct a parish census?
The merging of all parishioner data onto one system will allow us to remove duplicate registrations as well as those that have moved or passed who
were not previously removed. Once that is completed, serious consideration of a census will be made by council.

Have we consulted other parishes in the Diocese of Pittsburgh that have already completed the merging process? Does the Diocese have a
way for parish merger experiences to be shared?
As we go through the merger process, we are working with Dr. Gretta Stokes-Tucker, our diocesan consultant, who works in the Parish Services
Office. Based on the success and failures of the merging of previous parishes, they have provided us with assistance to move forward and navigate
our difficult circumstances.

Will you please provide more details about the naming process?
In the fall of 2020 a form to submit names that would best express our identity as a parish community was made available to all parishioners
through the bulletin, website, and mail. We received many suggestions. Similar or duplicate names were combined, and a list was compiled. The
names were discussed with the Advisory Council and evaluated based on a variety of factors, including frequency of submission. Some were eliminated because they did not meet the diocesan criteria, did not seem to express our identity as a grouping, or were already assigned to other parishes. The remaining names were compiled and the top 20 were submitted to Bishop Zubik. The Bishop eliminated several of these from consideration and indicated which of the remaining names were also being considered by other groupings. There were five names out of our 20 submissions which were not being considered by other groupings, virtually guaranteeing that we could be given one of those names. These five names are: Mary, Queen of All Saints*, St. Augustine, St. Martin de Porres, St. Rocco, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Bishop Zubik will prayerfully discern which
name to give us. This name will be revealed before the July 1st merging.

Once we are a merged parish, will we have one Parish Share Campaign?
Yes.

How will Mass intentions be scheduled?
Every effort will be made to accommodate the date and location (church) of the requestor. Following the merger, we will publish the new guidelines
for scheduling Mass intentions.


In the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Fr. Jean-Luc


(*Please note that in the 4/18/21 bulletin as well as the 2/25/21 PowerPoint presentation there was an error in stating this suggested name.  Much apologies for this oversight.)
 

For additional information, please visit the MERGER REPORT page.