Dear Parishioners,

I’ve been back from my sabbatical for almost two months now and I’m happy to be back. Even though we all wear masks now, it’s good to see the parts of your faces I can see. You may have noticed that I have been experiencing some physical difficulties, but my doctors changed up my medications a couple of days ago and today I’m having the best day that I have had in weeks. I hope that is a harbinger of what is to come.

I’ve been looking over our financial situation to see what condition we are in at this point and want to share that with you. Since I haven’t been here, we have not published a financial report for the last fiscal year yet, 

so that is attached. If you have any questions, contact Jim Crockett at the parish office (619) 442-1697 x.110.

There is good news and bad news, but praise God they seem to be balancing each other out. We finished last fiscal year (Jul 2019-June 2020) well. We finished with $53,927.51 over budget, to the good.  This good performance during a severe economic turndown occurred for a variety of reasons.

First, several people significantly increased their annual contributions because they were trying to help us during the downturn, probably upwards of $10,000. 

I am constantly impressed by the generosity and concern for the parish that our parishioners display.

Secondly, the Knights of Columbus also saw the need and donated $10,000 to the parish. The Knights demonstrate their commitment to the parish in many ways and this financial gift couldn’t have been made at a better time.

And we did very well with our Annual Parish Appeal, $9,851.68 over our goal. More kudos to our parishioners! Also, we saved a significant amount because of the curtailment of some faith formation activities due to COVID-19 closures and spent significantly less on Employee Fringe Benefits than we had budgeted.

We haven’t done so well with the Annual Catholic Appeal though. We are currently some $15,000 under our goal. This doesn’t affect the financial situation for the 2019-2020 fiscal year but will impact us this current fiscal year 2020-2021. We included an amount to cover the difference in the new budget.

This year, so far, has not been so good except that we had a large, unexpected donation recently. We were able to reduce the budget for FY 20-21 by $132,681.26. We did some belt-tightening and eliminated programs that we are not able to conduct during COVID. We reduced expected income by $132,680.65 to account for the drop in collections and Annual Catholic Appeal. Expected income would be even lower if it were not for the $85.000 loan from the CARES Act which we expect to be rolled over into a grant. With that, we were able to create a balanced budget.

Our income from the first quarter of FY 2020-2021 is $11,488.85 lower than budgeted. This is primarily due to Regular Support & Collections being even lower than we budgeted. If that trend continues, we will see a $44,000 deficit by the end of the fiscal year. But, we just received a gift of $50,000 from a trust set up in memory of Carol Rudd who died in 2018. Again, a generous parishioner who thought of us in advance of her death is helping us to weather our current crisis. Please remember Carol and her family in your prayers.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Remember to thank God for those parishioners who were capable of making large donations and had the commitment to 

the parish to actually do it.

God bless you all,
Fr. Ron