Parish financial update

Aug. 23, 2026

This week, as I mentioned at Mass previously, we are attaching a short rundown of the finances of the parishes from the last year. We once again finish the year in the black, in spite of how the totals appear on the sheet. The expenses were higher than the income, however much of the funds used for expenses were previously saved up and didn’t come from the income of the last year, so in reality we have come out ahead again this year. This is all thanks to the generosity of each of you. I am continuously amazed by how generous our parishioners are in spite of the rising costs of everything in our world right now, the weekly collections of the parishes have also gone up. I thank you for your sacrificing so much to ensure our parishes are able to continue to grow and improve in many ways.

Every year I offer a little summary of all the major projects we have accomplished at the parishes over the year, to give everyone a picture of how the donations and such are being used. This last year was a big one for projects at both parishes.

At Holy Family: we were able to remodel the second set of bathrooms, fix the damaged concrete in the parking lot and restripe it, install a new updated sign for the Church closer to the road, and finally – the really big project was redoing all of the flooring in the hall, classrooms and sacristy. Some really major changes took place.

At St. Isidore it was also a year of major changes: some more work has been done on the rectory, the cemetery project was finished, we just installed a new well at the church, and the complete remodel and renovation of the sanctuary.

All in all, there were some very dramatic and largescale projects taken on during the last year and they have really changed how things look and how we feel in our churches. I am extremely pleased with how everything has come out so far – especially the sanctuary update at St. Isidore. Our churches are being updated and beautified for all of us and for the coming generations who will worship God and form bonds with other believers in those places.

For the coming year, we are looking at a couple more projects that we can hopefully check off our list. At Holy Family, there may possibly be some updates made in the Church, but nothing is set in stone at the moment. At St. Isidore, we are making the old day chapel into a “cry room” since we have so many more children than previous years and we are working on getting the church entry doors and the main hall outside door replaced. Lastly, we have been looking at two projects that are connected – the parking lot and the garage. Many feel the parking lot is something that needs to be done soon. Unfortunately, years of neglected maintenance and really a poor job from the beginning have left the parking lot in such a way that it must be totally removed and re-graded with new drainage patterns before we can put a new one in. Along with that it would be nice to have a garage that I and whoever follows after me might be able to actually use. The garage that is currently there is only sufficiently sized for a compact car or a model t, and any work that we could do to make it actually usable to park in would end up costing almost as much as building a new one, which is basically what it would end up being anyways. It wouldn’t make any financial or construction sense to try and make it workable when we can just put something a little bigger in its place and have the assurance also that it is done properly and will outlast my time. In all honesty, since I am living half the week at St. Isidore, it would be nice to have a place to park inside during the winter months and also have a place to work on some projects. Right now, I cannot park in the garage or even open the door up on my truck with it pulled partially in. The garage would not be a huge barn, just something a little bigger than what is there now. All total, these two projects - especially with the total redoing of the parking lot - would cost around $180,000. When discussing this with the finance council it was suggested that we present this project to the parish as there may be some who would like to donate to it, in order that we can get it done as soon as possible and not have to take the money completely out of the parish budget. If you would like to give towards this project, which would be greatly appreciated, please feel free to let myself or Sharon know that way any money that is received is earmarked for those specific things. Thank you for another wonderful year at the parish.

God love you, Fr. Anthony