Dear Parish Family,
Having been 19 years since the last time there had been a change in pastors here at St. John the Evangelist, there are a few things as a matter of protocol that occur on the diocesan level of which you may not be aware.
Diocesan Parish Audit
One of them is a diocesan parish audit in which a 6-person team from the diocese comes to the parish for a few days to audit thoroughly the operations and financial state of the parish, which includes the school and cemetery. They came in July and have submitted their findings to the bishop, who has expressed his support of them.
Five of the six people on the Audit Team were the principal persons of the diocese in their field: the CFO, the HR director, the Properties Management Director, the Associate Superintendent of Catholic Schools, and of course, the Diocesan Parish Auditor. The sixth person was a Business Manager from another parish in the diocese.
This Audit Team poured over our financial statements, looked at our staffing, inspected our facilities, and examined our business practices and monetary checks and balances. As one may expect after not having an audit for 19 years, they discovered a number of inefficiencies and have made numerous recommendations, all of which are there to help us be better stewards of the resources that our parishioners give. I will be sharing with you the results of our parish audit next month as I go over their findings in greater detail with them this month.
Our Finance Council, chaired by Barb McClure, and our school’s Legacy Committee, chaired by Steve Schneider, have begun discussions regarding the diocesan areas of concern. Furthermore, another parishioner, Ben Dandrow, has recently retired and will be placing his talents of logistics and operations at the service of the parish. He will be helping us devise a strategy regarding how these findings can help St. John the Evangelist Parish become the best it can be and its implementation.
Installation of the Pastor
Another event that occurs with the change of the pastor is a pastoral visit from the bishop in which he will preside over a Mass and officially install me as the canonical pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish. In other words, Bishop Boyea is coming here to make it official. Being installed as pastor comes with it certain stability, which means the bishop cannot just reassign me without a good reason. The date of that visit has yet to be determined, but I very much look forward to it!
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Chas