January 15, 2006

One of my New Year's resolutions is to say thank you more often and always take the time to express my gratitude for those who are so supportive of the life of our parish family here at St. Rita. Let me begin today:

• As you know - because Christmas fell on a Sunday, we were worried about the loss - equivalent to an entire weekend collection. In fact you responded with the largest Christmas collection in the parish's history - $43,255 . . . Thank You
• Last week we met and exceeded our TGA Diocesan Ministries Appeal. 890 donors gave $83,463 and some gifts are still coming in. . . . Thank You
• As we worked on the Parish Budget for 2005-2006 we were looking at a deficit. Thanks to the work of both the Finance and Parish Councils and your generosity, we are in the black. We still have much work to do, but we are hopeful of finishing the year slightly ahead of what we budgeted. . . . Thank You
• You will recall that on the Partners in Faith Capital Campaign we exceeded our goal significantly and pledged $913,695.55. One half of all pledges paid comes back to our parish explicitly for the three parts of our Parish Case Statement. In today's bulletin you will see a page that spells out where we are to date and what these monies have accomplished. Again . . . Thank You

When we are good stewards of all the gifts God has given us - great things happen for our faith community. Thank you,
Fr. Chuck