Stewardship - Keeping Our Finances Strong

Remember how our bell tower looked in 2019?
 
We know that the last few years have been especially trying times for our parish finances from a major capital repair perspective. We were faced with the sudden and unexpected need to replace the basilica ceiling during 2017/2018, and then to make more extensive than expected repairs to the bell tower during 2019/2020. Now we look ahead to more repairs to the windows in the basilica to address the effects of decades of Chicago rain and snow.
 
We were blessed with the foresight of those who came before us and established long-term savings to act as a cushion against which we could borrow from ourselves to pay for these types of major emergency expenses. Now it is our turn to replenish those endowments and restore our financial position so that we will be ready for the future.
 
Please consider using your blue envelopes to make direct contributions to our parish endowments in addition to your continued generosity to our regular weekend collections.
 
To restore our parish savings, which is an essential safety net for our parish future, we have set a goal of replenishing our endowments by $5 million, by increasing our Sunday collections by a minimum of 25%, or though direct contributions to our endowments. (see “Blue Envelope” here).