Bette Novak was one of the first people I would see on Sunday morning as she would be sitting in the first pew in front of the pulpit, long before the 8am Mass. She was a always wearing a smile, even when facing difficulties in her life. She would stay at home with her husband Don of 57 years who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s for several years. She lost a son who died about 3 years ago. But she continued to place her faith in God and to give thanks for the blessing of her husband, 3 surviving children & several grandchildren. Betty died after a short illness & we celebrated her funeral Mass on Friday, November 5th. May she and all the faithful departed, rest in peace, especially as we remember all of those who died from our parish during this past year throughout the month of November.
Father Vesely turned 93 this past week on Monday, November 8th. Please remember him in prayer & ask the Lord to keep him in good health.
In this weekend’s bulletin, you’ll find the Annual Summary Financial Report for our parish from this past fiscal year (July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021). I gave a brief update on our parish finances a couple of weeks ago in this column, but I wanted to mention a few other highlights from this report. First, in terms of building renovations, we were able to complete the full remodeling of the boy’s & girls restrooms in the school building. We also remodeled the school office and have placed new floors in the main hallways of the school. We have installed new touch-less drinking fountains in the school and have replaced all the old doors with new ones. New awnings will be in place soon on all our buildings to clearly mark the building and its entrance location.
We have paid our first of three $22,000 installments to the Diocese as part of our commitment to help with the much-needed renovation of our seminary buildings in Wickliffe, and which allows us forgo a parish campaign whereby we ask you to contribute to this cause. In terms of income, we received $78,396 from our parish investments and received a one-time payment from the IRS in the amount of $64,557 as an employee tax credit due to remote work and school situations related to COVID. We received over $20,000 from our capital improvement envelopes (thank you!) and over $15,000 in donations from parishioners outside of our weekend collections. Our SVDP Ministry also received over $20,000 in donations this past year. Our Sweepstakes Raffle made a profit of $4,475 and we made a profit of $7,115 from our Fish Fry this year, despite the take-out only restriction due to COVID. Our Gift Card Program made a profit of $7,175. Because of these profits and due to a continued increase in school enrollment, our total bank balance for this past fiscal year was $1,732,785, an increase of $309,251 from our balance of $1.423,534 from the previous fiscal year. We also saw an increase in our offertory collection of 1.13%, due again to your continued commitment to the financial well-being of our parish. I am so deeply grateful for the hard work and generosity of all our parishioners who are helping us grow our savings and thus secure a financial future. Pray that I may be a good steward of our parish in every way.
I will be away this weekend before the Advent & Christmas seasons begin. Though it will again be more of a “staycation,” I look forward to getting caught up with family & friends now that my other errands have been taken care on from my last few days away. Thank you for welcoming the priests who will be praying with you this weekend. Please pray for us all.
4940 Broadview Rd.
Cleveland OH 44109
216-661-1006
Roman Catholic Church
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