You may recall a couple of months ago I presented to all of you an overall financial state of our parish.  At that time, I was very happy to report that financially our parish was doing well financially and were heading in the right the direction.  That is still the case today…we are still heading in the right direction.  I also mentioned at that time that beginning as soon as this winter we would also need to raise come funds in order to upgrade, restore, and repair the buildings of our church that have served us so well for more than 50 years.  You might have heard that we have already started to raise some of these capital funds, and I wanted to take some time this weekend as your acting pastor to update all of you in regards to where we are with this Capital Renovation Project and where we are heading in the months to come.

Let me just share with you a quick story: in the summer months, the priests are privileged to get large blocks of time off, and I usually spend some of that time off visiting my family up in Maine who I don’t get to see all that often.  My brother is a school teacher, so he too has a block of time off in the summer.  Well, two summers ago he and I decided that we would spend some of that time repainting the kitchen, living room, and the family room in my parents’ house.  You see, they had spent over a year remodeling the inside of their house and this was really the last thing that needed to get done.  So my brother and I went to the paint store, bought all the supplies, and spent an entire week painting the inside of their house.  The night before I was supposed to head back here to Long Island, we were all sitting around the living room and my mom said something that I thought was so interesting.  She said: “I have lived in this house for 35 years, and I finally have it the way I want it.”  Within six months, the water tank burst and they had a flood and had to redo the floors in all three rooms.  They had to redo the roof before the winter because serious leaks began to occur.  And they had to repair all the windows because the harsh winters had taken their toll.  As all of this began to unfold I remembered that conversation we had the night before I left and I felt so sorry for my mom.  But my mother is much calmer than I am and she said to me: “Hey, Lee, these things happen.  When things get old they break…and they never break at a convenient time.  You just need to fix them and move on.”  Those of you who are homeowners know exactly what my mom was talking about.  Things in the home DO break and they never break at a “good” time.  When they break, you NEED to fix them right away because if you don’t bigger problems will occur.  And fixing things in the home is NEVER INEXPENSIVE.

            That’s exactly where we are in this home…and that’s just what this is: this is our parish home.  Many of you have made your sacraments here…you’ve watched your children or your grandchildren make their sacraments here.  Many of you have graduated from our school and to this very day can identify very specific skills that you have that have served you well because of the education and formation that you received in our school.  Most of us are involved in the life of this parish in one way or another…and that involvement is what makes this parish so vibrant and do alive.  And all of us come here on Sundays so that we can be fed by the Lord himself.  It’s this parish family that celebrates with us on those joyous occasions of life…and it’s this parish family that gets us through the most difficult times in life.  We are a family…this is our home.  But our home is starting to wear down and we need to fix things.  It would be a shame if we couldn’t do what we do best as a parish family if we didn’t have the facilities to do them any longer. 

            So, what is it exactly that needs to get done?  Well, there are four major areas of repair that are necessary.  The first thing we need to do is replace the boilers.  The boilers that we use now are the original boilers, and as someone on my committee reminded us they were installed during the Kennedy Administration.  I don’t want to make anyone feel bad, but I wasn’t even born in the Kennedy Administration.  The boilers we are using now are only running at 40% capacity, and again those of you who are homeowners know that is very costly in the long run.  We also need to replace the air conditioner here in the Church. We have probably seen our last summer with AC if we don’t fix it.  Take a look at some of these stained glass windows…you can see some of the water damage that has occurred because the window seal is inefficient.  We need to fix them.  And perhaps the most serious of all the repairs is that the roofs on each of the four buildings have to be replaced.  There is a hole so big in the rectory roof that Fr. Vinny doesn’t need to turn the water on in his shower when it rains like it did the other night.  One day, I noticed on a rainy day that there was a woman sitting in this section of the Church on the other side of the pew where she was sitting was a garbage pail catching the water that was leaking in the Church.  Same thing with the Tabernacle area.  And I am sure you have seen the vestibule and the Children’s Chapel on rainy days…water just pours in.  Over in the Parish Center,  Fr. Suglia’s office and the Book Keeper’s office have serious leaks.  We have to fix these problems because if we don’t we are going to face much bigger problems very shortly.

            Now I know some of you are sitting out there saying, “Now wait a minute Fr. Lee…we just did a capital campaign about 12 years ago and I thought we fixed the roofs and took care of some of these things.  Where did all that money go?”  Well it is very important that everyone understand a couple of things about that  previous capital campaign.  First of all, it wasn’t all of the roofs that were repaired the last time…it was the lower roof here on the Church: the roof that covers the breezeway, the roof that covers the Seniors Room, the roof that covers the vestibule.  Those roofs are fine…what we need to do now is replace the upper roof on the Church, the roof over the Parish Center, the roof over the school.  You may also remember that we also had a very large debt left to pay on our gym.  That too had to be paid off.  We re-did the parking lots, we did some pointing, we worked on the elevator.  Those were very different things than what we need to do now.

            So, what is the upshot of all this?  What is this going to cost us?  Well, we brought in some experts, we got some estimates, and while you never know what you will find once you start opening up roofs, we are estimating that the entire cost of these parish renovations will run us approximately $1.5 million.  Now, when I first heard that figure I was seriously unnerved because I can’t even begin to envision what $1.5 million looks like, and I imagine that many of you are in exactly the same situation.  But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this is actually a very reasonable goal to achieve.  We have more than 8,000 families in this parish and while I am not naive to think that every one of those families will give to this project I do have great hope in the goodness and the generosity of the thousands of families whose lives have been touched over the years by this remarkable parish family.  That is my appeal to all of you: think about your life today.  Think about how it might different if it were not for this parish.   And while I would never, ever ask someone to give beyond what their means allow – it would be utterly sinful to expect that – I do ask that you, and your families, and your neighbors consider making a three year pledge so that we can achieve our goal.

We have already held four information sessions – and there are about 20 more to come and everyone will

be invited…if you haven’t been invited yet, you will…it’s coming – but we have already raised more than $200, 000 in pledges, so we are off to a great start.  I have no doubt that we will make our goal.  And if we exceed our goal, which I really think we will, then it is my hope that for the first time in a long time, this parish might have some money in savings.  How great would that be?  And let me just say that all of the money we raise is ours…Rockville Centre does not get a dime of it.  It is our money for the exclusive use of capital repairs. 

            In the vestibule of the Church we have some photos of the current condition of some of our buildings.  Take a moment if you can to look at them.  Our Commitment Weekend is in March so that gives us all couple of months to prayerfully consider how we might be able to give back to this parish family.  If you want to make a pledge sooner no problem…let me know…I’ll get you the pledge form.  On a more personal note, I have only been with you for five years and we have certainly been through a lot together haven’t we?  And I think you all know me well enough to know that I would not stand here and talk to you about this if I didn’t believe in this place.  No one likes to talk about money.  No one likes to hear about money.  But this is our home.  This is my home, for as long as they let me stay.  And I know that for the rest of my life as a priest I will view ministry and parish life from behind the lens of this…my first parish family.  Please consider making a pledge to this campaign, in whatever capacity you can afford.  And you have my word that I will keep you informed through the entire process and I will hide nothing from you…that is not my style.  We all have a right to know where exactly our money is being spent.  And I also ask that you pray for the success of this appeal so that we continue to do what we have always done best as a parish family – to build up the Kingdom of God in this tiny part of the world known as Deer Park and North Babylon.