Pastoral Letter, Part 2: Infrastructure Needs
We are blessed with what I firmly believe is the most beautiful Church building in St. Charles County. Our steeple stands tall along I-70, serving as a beacon to those passing by that God is present here; our stained-glass windows illuminate our church with light and color each morning; our high altar lifts our hearts and minds to God in Holy Mass.
Yet, there are a number of important items that need addressing inside our Church building, especially if we are to maintain a place of beauty that draws others into relationship with God. I believe this represents a unique opportunity to not so much renovate, but truly restore our Church building to the fullness of its beauty and luster. As far as what needs to be addressed in the immediate future, I would boil them down to what I call, “The Big 5”.
(1) Our carpet is showing its age and needs to be replaced. In addition, the tile underneath our pews is very old and needs replacing but has asbestos underneath it. These two situations present a unique opportunity to completely replace our church flooring, with either hardwood, vinyl, or tile. A Church as old and beautiful as ours deserves nicer flooring than what we currently have.
(2) If there’s one suggestion/criticism that I hear most often from parishioners and guests about our church building, it concerns the state of our pews. They’re many decades old and in desperate need of replacement. Our kneelers are made entirely of wood, many are not in good shape, and overall, our pews are very close together, requiring most folks over 5’7 to put the kneeler down behind them. I’d like to replace the pews in our church building in the next few years, and I would be willing to sacrifice a row in the back of church to give us some more space in-between each row of pews. I’m also interested in using the original pews in the choir loft as templates for what our new pews could look like.
(3) Our Church interior needs to be re-painted. As many of you have noticed, we have a growing amount of paint that is chipping around the Church (some of it is probably cracked plaster too). As part of this effort, I’ve been examining our archives to find out what our previous paint-designs were. Many people don’t realize that our Church building didn’t always have the beige color scheme it currently has; it used to be much more ornate and colorful. So, I’d like to see what can be done to restore the paint to an older color scheme, one previously in use here at All Saints.
(4) Our confessionals need to be replaced. They’re not the most practical confessionals in the world, cramped with very little air-flow, not very sound proof and (most importantly) not very handicap accessible. There are all kinds of ways to effectively lay out confessionals, and I’m interested in seeing how they can be improved to make them quieter, more beautiful, more comfortable, and more accessible too.
(5) I’d like to see what can be done about bringing back our sanctuary rail. It’s an important part of our parish’s history and was present in our Church for generations. We have roughly half of it down in the rectory basement, but the rest has been repurposed into other liturgical furnishings. While I don’t think it’s physically possible to put all those specific pieces back together, I would like to bring the sanctuary rail back as a way of emphasizing the beautiful sanctuary of our Church. Ours is a Church building where people walk in and expect to see a sanctuary rail.
These projects will require substantial investment by the parish and perhaps, a small capital campaign. However, I firmly believe that this investment is worth it if our Church is to maintain its beauty and grandeur as it should. My hope is that in the next 4-6 years, we can commence these projects (hopefully getting them done in one fell swoop) and give our church building a strong foundation for the next 50-100 years.
Two “Pipe Dream” Ideas
Beyond “The Big 5”, there are 2 other projects that I’ve thought a lot about in recent months. I would specifically classify these as “pipe dreams” rather than “urgent needs”, but I feel they’re worth mentioning as part of my wider vision for our parish and our mission going forward. First, I would love to have a Eucharistic Adoration Chapel here at All Saints. As I said in Part 1 of my letter, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith, and we need more opportunities to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament than just an hour per week. I also believe that a Eucharistic Adoration Chapel will foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life, as well as promote Eucharistic devotion among our school students. I see Eucharistic devotion as an area where we have room to grow as a parish, and an adoration chapel will do a lot to make that happen. Ideally, an Adoration Chapel would be accessible to both parishioners and our school students, because I want our students to have more opportunities for Adoration than what they currently have. As I see it, the ideal location for such a chapel would be the current music room (which would require us to move the music room to another location). With enough support from our parish, though, it’s something I’d love to pursue, if the stars aligned.
Second, if the opportunity presented itself, I would love to add a lobby along the length of our Church that faces the main parking lot, from the sacristy door all the way to the back of the Church. The reasons for this are numerous. I know that our church building is beloved by our entire parish family, as it should be! We need only look at the discussions in prior decades about building a new church, and how every time, our parishioners soundly rejected the idea in favor of staying where we are—which is not a bad thing! However, I believe our parish could benefit from a lobby in a number of ways. We could have substantially more space for funeral visitations; add a bridal room for weddings; have an area where parents could bring their children who are having trouble sitting still, all while having the Mass piped in via the sound system; we would be able to congregate after Mass regardless of the weather; and we could add more bathroom facilities than what we currently have. I say all this from personal experience: my home parish, St. Ferdinand, added a lobby about 12 years ago, and it was an absolute game changer for the parish. A lobby would preserve our Church’s current layout, while adding much needed space to meet our modern needs—quite literally, the best of both worlds.
Our Parish School
Part of our proud history as a parish concerns our parish school. Our school building dates back to the early 1900’s and has served thousands of students for over a century. This past school year, however, we were down to 123 students in our K-8 program, a 40% decline in just the last 8 years, and a culmination of a significant decrease in enrollment over the past few decades. In spite of all these headwinds of prior years, I’m thrilled to share that our school’s enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year currently stands at 137 students in our K-8 program, an increase of over 13%!!! Pre-school is full as well! While this only represents one year of data, there are several reasons why I’m optimistic that our school has turned a corner, and is on the road to a more sustainable future.
So, in brief, here is where things stand with our parish school:
(1) We still have work to do to achieve long-term sustainability, challenges that must be addressed by our entire parish community, and I don’t want this year’s enrollment increase to lull us into a false sense of security. Our biggest challenge in recent years has been retaining our students year over year. Retention improved dramatically this year, but we need to keep that momentum going in the years ahead.
(2) A Catholic school exists to serve the greater mission of the parish, not the other way around. If a school becomes financially unsustainable and threatens the financial health and mission of the parish, then a pastor has a duty to preserve the parish first, no question about it. More on our school’s finances can be found later in this letter (spoiler alert, it’s good news!). That being said…
(3) I sincerely and firmly believe we are moving in the right direction with our school, guided by the leadership of our principal, Dr. Melvin Bishop, and our wonderful faculty. Their steady hands have hopefully helped us turn a corner towards long-term viability. Right now, our 6th and 7th grades are by far our smallest grades, and we have high confidence that our future Kindergarten classes will remain robust, creating opportunities for significant growth in the next few years, provided we retain our current students through 8th grade. All Saints’ ideal school size is 225 students, K-8, and I believe that we can get our enrollment to 160 or more in just the next 4-5 years if Kindergarten remains strong and our retention continues to improve. This will take time, effort, and work on the part of all of us, but I firmly believe it’s possible.
(4) Following Jesus, Forming Saints stands at the heart of my vision for our parish school. Catholic schools should not just teach our students but truly form them. We embrace the concept that the moral and spiritual formation of our children is far more important than any academic instruction they will ever receive; because, at the end of the day, the most important subjects aren’t reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the lessons taught concerning our Catholic faith. Every facet of a Catholic school should proclaim the Gospel and instill a Catholic vision for the world into the hearts and minds of our students. This means we must distinguish ourselves more and more from the public schools around us, because at the core of Catholic education is a way of looking at the world that stands in stark contrast to secular society. So, for instance, a truly Catholic school must embrace truth, not relativism; must see individuals as the creation of God and not merely members of identity groups; and must uphold the dignity of all human life from conception to natural death, regardless of the values of popular culture. These are just a few ways that Catholic schools stand out, and how All Saints should stand out in the future.
(5) On a practical level, I believe our school can grow by a more frequent participation in the life of our parish, and the sacraments as a whole. For instance, I’ve already added more times for confession for our students, because, let’s be honest, they need to go more often than just twice a year (frankly, we ALL need to go more than twice a year, but that’s a conversation for a different time). I’m also working on a comprehensive list of prayers that I’d like our students to have memorized at various grade-levels. In addition, I also believe our students should be attending Eucharistic Adoration and praying the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet in class on a more regular basis.
(6) On the financial side of things, our school is what I would describe as “significantly better than average.” There is not a single Catholic grade school in America that breaks even on the year, so money from the weekly offertory must go over to the school to make up for what tuition doesn’t cover—we call this the “parish subsidy.” In St. Louis, a healthy range of parish subsidy is between 20-30% of the Sunday offertory (what I call the “green zone”); however, there are a number of parishes whose subsidies are over 50% (what I call the “red zone”). When a parish subsidy is this high, it handcuffs the parish’s ability to perform essential parish functions, with significantly less money available for things like evangelization and basic upkeep of facilities. All this being said, our parish subsidy at All Saints was 29% this past year, equating to $387,000. This is the first time in a while that our school subsidy has ended up in the “green zone”, and I’m so grateful for the work of our parish and school staff to keep costs low while maintaining a high quality education for our students. If our enrollment continues to increase as we hope it will, then our subsidy will decrease even more. A lower parish subsidy means that our school will (hopefully) be in an even healthier position in years to come.