As was announce two weeks ago, starting the weekend of August 1 & 2, 2020 we will have a new schedule for weekend Masses.  We will still have the 5 PM Vigil Mass on Saturday evening, but on Sunday mornings we will now have a 9 AM and an 11 AM.

This was a change that was being considered even before the pandemic.  At none of our weekend Masses were either church more than a third full.  By reducing a Mass on the weekend, we will save some money on utilities, and we will not have to hire a priest to come down to assist me on the weekend.  Also, again even before the pandemic, we were starting to have a hard time finding the liturgical ministers we need for Mass (EMHCs, lectors, altar servers).  Many of our liturgical ministers have been serving for many years, and I am so grateful for their service.  Yet over the years, some have moved, others have decided to change to another ministry, some have gotten sick and are not able to continue, and some have died.  With a reduced weekend Mass schedule with do not need as many liturgical ministers -- ALTHOUGH I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY NEW VOLUNTEERS.  Another advantage of the new Mass schedule is that when we get back to "normal" for religious educaiton, our catechists and students will get an extra hour of sleep; we will begin at 9:30 AM instead of 8:30 AM.

For now, we will continue to have all the Masses at Holy Name Church.  With the restrictions due to the pandemic and the need to social distance, we can fit more people into Holy Name Church.  Yesterday we had a largest crowd since re-entering the church; 54 people at the 10 AM.  When we institute the new Mass schedule August 1 & 2, the 11 AM Mass will be our live-stream Mass.

Once all the social distancing restrictions are lifted, and we are able to use both churches, the 5 PM Vigil and the 11 AM will be at Holy Name, and the 9 AM will be at St. Casimir; but we do not know when that will begin.  For now, all Masses will be at Holy Name Church.

A couple of people have asked me, and I imagine even more have wondered, is the writing on the wall that St. Casimir is going to be closed.  I can tell you that there are no plans to do that, but it might be a possibility.  Even before the pandemic, the parish was not really keeping up with its monthly expenses.  The only reason we were able to pay all our bills the last fiscal year was because of some extraordinary gifts to the parish, and the Payroll Protection Program.  If we did not have money from the PPP, last month we would have been $27,000 in the red, and that was just one month.  Now I know that the pandemic has hurt a lot of people financially.  Some have been furloughed, others just had their hours cut, and some have had to take a pay cut.  My sister, a pediatrician had to take a 20% pay cut.  Since we are all in the same boat, I have not been pushing the finances too much, but the parish is in a tight spot.  One of the biggest costs that we have is maintaining two campuses, especially when we can fit everyone into one church (either of them could hold even our largest weekend Mass, before the pandemic).  So while there are no plans to close St. Casimir, we will have to see what the future brings.  Just closing it would not be a huge savings; if we closed it we would need to sell it to really benefit, and frankly, I do not think the real estate market is very good right now.  So relax, St. Casimir will be one of our churches for some time.