Pastor’s Corner — September 28th, 2025
Parish Financials and Stewardship Update
In this weekend’s bulletin you’ll find a Parish Financial Stewardship insert. On one side is an outline of our parish and school financials and on the other side is a letter from Ryan Nardozzi, our Director of Operations which contextualizes some key takeaways. As a fiscally conservative and mission-minded Pastor, I take this part of my role here very seriously. In addition to Ryan’s comments, I want to add a couple of comments:
• It is undeniable that God is blessing our parish. An important sign of healthy disciples in a parish is their financial stewardship in supporting the material needs of the Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2043). The fact that we have 60% percent of registered families who have responded to God’s grace to fulfill the fifth precept of the Church by supporting the material needs of the Church is a beautiful sign of God moving in our parish. Again, I’m thankful for so many of you who give to the parish.
• God is blessing the mission of our parish, which is made possible by your stewardship. Please check out the “by the numbers” section of his letter. I could go on, but I just want to reiterate that it is your generous stewardship that is playing a key role in making it possible for us to serve and help others become disciples of Jesus. Thank you!
• Online giving is increasing and we very much value that. That’s the way I give personally and I’m thankful for that option. We encourage more parishioners to take advantage of this option by going here.
•We’ve invested big in parish projects. Because we smashed our goal for our Stewardship for Saints and Scholars Campaign, we’ve been able to invest $850k in projects around the parish. You can read more about that in Ryan’s letter.
•I’m very thankful for all of the people that work so hard and diligently to make sure that we are good stewards of the resources people offer to God. Special thanks go to Ryan Nardozzi, our bookkeepers Donna Cesarz and Mary Beth Sobel, our Sunday collection counting teams, and our stalwart Finance Council led by Michael Demeyere. We couldn’t steward God’s gifts so well without them.
Presbyteral Convocation: No Mass Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week
This week all the priests of the diocese will be gathering with the Bishop for our annual convocation. We will not have Mass this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Confessions on Wednesday are canceled but Thursday confessions are still on. Please pray for us priests.
Parish Safety Team
Some people have asked about Church security. Yes, we have had a Safety Team and they’ve been meeting for well over a year. See Ryan’s column for more information about the first meeting open to the parish. Soon we will be changing some protocols in the parish for Sunday Mass as a response to our new plan.
Charlie Kirk, Christian Renewal, and Praying for Our Country
Like many of you, I have a lot of thoughts around Charlie Kirk and his assassination. Because of the small group homily series, I only preached a little bit about this at the beginning of my homily a couple of weeks ago. (I said it a little differently at each Mass, but the main point is well said in the homily posted online). Generally speaking, I don’t think it’s necessary for me to comment further at this time with the exception of these three things.
1) Regardless of what you think of Charlie Kirk’s politics, there is something powerful happening in people’s faith right now. His death, along with his witness to Jesus has caused many to consider Christianity and others to come back to Church. Though we should carefully distinguish this from fervor of a political kind, we cannot and should not dismiss the spiritual dynamics of what’s going on right now.
2) That Erika Kirk would declare before millions that she forgives the alleged assassin of her husband is an incredibly powerful witness of Christ to our world. Only Jesus can give grace to respond like this to the murder of her husband. I’m so grateful that God is bringing good out of this evil.
3) One of the best things I can encourage parishioners to read is Bishop Barron’s article, He Died with a Microphone in his Hand.
As our divided country grapples with the political fallout from this assassination, especially around the topics of freedom of speech and political violence, we need to continue to redouble our efforts of praying for our country. I invite you to join together as a community in praying a Rosary for Our Country on the first Tuesday of the month at 6pm in the Chapel, starting October 7th. Our nation at large, and our leaders in particular, need our prayers more than ever. Let's ask Our Lady for her intercession and entrust the nation, its leaders, and its citizens to her Immaculate Heart.
Parish Festival Oktoberfest (Next Weekend: Sunday October 5: 2pm-6pm at St Pat’s School)
Our parish festival each year, held on the Parish School grounds, is a great family event replete with bounce houses, obstacle courses, and FREE beer and German food. We also will have with us again the Tommy Schober and the Sound of Sorgenbrecher German band. This festival brings our parish and school communities together and is a great opportunity for parishioners to see our beautiful school building, who otherwise might not have an opportunity to do so.
At the end of our event, we draw the winners of the St Pat’s Shamrock Raffle. Special thanks to those who have turned in their raffle tickets already, as it is our biggest fundraiser. I’m very interested in who wins the Golden Ticket Raffle! There is still time to turn in your tickets in the large barrels at the Church entrances or into the front office. Please do so by Sunday October 5th by 1pm.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr Mathias