March 10, 2022

Pastoral Council Meeting

Members Present:  Lola Gualtieri, Carl Thomas, Brook Gleason,  Cookie Durham, Claude Pilon, Fr. John, Fr. Foley, Mark Bentz, Karen Markoff

Members Absent:, Bob Mc Crone,  Ken Kirkman, Kira Reed, Linda Cadaret, Tom Griffith

Opening Prayer

  • Brook Gleasman led the opening prayer.

  • Meeting was called to order by Brook at 5:01.


Minutes of January 27, 2021

  • Carl moved we accept the January 27 2021 minutes of our last meeting.

  • Lola seconded.

  • All in favor- passed unanimously.


Old Business:  

Youth Program Interaction with Parishioners

  • Father Foley and Brook spoke with Steve. Brook’s wife will be doing a paint party in the future for the Middle and High School Youth Group & Parishioners @ Yeazel. Dates, costs, etc. to be determined and will put in the bulletin.

  • There is interaction now with the daily Mass crowd- Lux Mundi Group -about 10 adults who come to daily Mass, and some walk down and have bagels with the kids. This usually happens on Wednesdays when students are not in school- vacation times.

  • Steve Nepil suggested the best way to connect youth and adults might be Tenebrae- social afterwards in Gathering Space. He is working with priests and Ernie, Music Director.

Council Membership-Elections

  • Discussed membership- Brook emailed Council membership and terms. Father would like about 12 members. We will have five openings, two which will be students, one more will be representative of Holy Cross School, and the two other openings will be nominations from the parish.

  • Father Foley will ask Steve to nominate the two students, preferably one will be a sophomore or junior, and one a senior. Karen will ask Linda and Bob to find another member from the school.

  • Father John said he will have Josh complete the nomination form which will be put in the pews during the last two weeks of Lent. Father will send the form to Brook; other members said it was not necessary for Father to send it to them. Brook will approve for the group.

  • Once we have nominations, we will publish in bulletin, and if there are more than two, we will have a parish vote on the two representatives.

Pastoral Council Badges

  • Father John to get badges to the Council and greeters.

  • Names on & Holy Cross Pastoral Council- Father to do. Decided on cheapest plastic pin badges.

Lent

  • Father Foley said Steve Nepil did a great job kicking off Adoration. One of the visions is for Father Foley to work with Steve on sharing the Faith Formation or additional adult videos about the Catholic faith with adult parishioners. Karen and Claude commented on how well developed these are and that parishioners would benefit and appreciate Steve’s strong teaching of the faith. great idea to Faith Formation videos- teachers get it.

  • Claude suggested Faith Formation students for Holy Thursday- Washing of Feet. Karen asked if the kids are going to do this that they dress appropriately- no short shorts, tee-shirts, etc.

End-of-Year Picnic/Celebration- TBD 

  • Steve is thinking of an end-of-the-school year Mass, gathering, awards- not something formal and big like the September Parish Picnic.


New Business:

  • Karen shared the draft of a survey to be distributed to parishioners to get their input of how we can strengthen and meet their needs. Karen reviewed surveys and suggested this as a starting point. Cookie asked if they could have time to look it over and think about purpose and survey areas. Father John suggested they do it this week, and email Karen any changes or suggestions. She will then make corrections, etc. and send back out to the Council for comment and review. We will then finalize it at the next meeting.

  • Father suggested we give 5 minutes of Homily time and collect it right at Mass to be sure we get survey results.

Committee Reports/Updates:

Father John

  • Hope Appeal was a success. The goal for the parish was $96,249, and we raised $183,157. 100% of the overage -$90,108 -came back to the parish this year. This same percentage will not exist next year. Father said we will use the money for Yeazel Hall classroom renovations- carpeting and pulling out the big cabinets.

  • Collections doing fairly well.

  • The parish still support Holy Cross School with about $200,000. The diocese is looking at the funding of Catholic schools as it is becoming difficult for some parishes to maintain the fiscal support. We hope to increase enrollment to about 200 students. Currently, we have 154 students. Tuition is just under $6,000, but it costs about $8,000/student. Brook suggested a referral or first time student tuition reduction. Father said they could consider this.

  • Father also explained the process on reorganization of dioceses- Steve Green and Fr. John are working on this. It means parishes cannot be sued for the past, but they will have to pay. They are looking at how many and frequency of occurrences. Holy Cross has none; however, we will have to contribute. Father said they are trying to do this as equitably as possible.

  • Father said the special collection for the Ukraine last weekend raised $6,700, and this will funnel through the Churches of Eastern Europe.

Father Foley - nothing additional

Communications - nothing to report

School - kids are happy to be unmasked and back to school. Students were on vacation last week, so it was hard for Linda to get students to hand out the Lenten booklets. We will try again at Advent time. 

Hospitality - Mary and Cookie said people want to help, and have received many positive comments at 10:30 Mass. Claude and Carl said the same at 4:00. They said seniors especially like the help getting into Mass. Maybe Steve could get some students to handout bulletins and greet at 5:00 Mass. 

Closing prayer 

  • Brook led closing prayer.

  • Lola motioned to adjourn. Carl seconded.

  • Vote- unanimous. Meeting adjourned at 5:59

Next Meeting: May 12 at 5:30 in Yeazel Hall. 

Holy Cross