Consider this a “Pastor’s Grab Bag” this week as there are a number of things I want to tell you.

First, I wanted to let you know that after consultation with our parish council, St. Paul Parish will no longer be serving as a polling place for any elections. While this has been a great service to our community, and certainly convenient if we happen to vote in this precinct, we’ve run into some difficulties. As we know, in November, Ohio Issue 1 passed, which resulted in the right to abortion being written into our state constitution. St. Paul served as a voting site, which resulted in many campaign signs being erected on
our property for several different candidates and issues, including signs that urged voters to vote “yes” on Issue 1, in contradiction to our belief in the fundamental dignity of every human life. Furthermore, our rental contract with the Board of Elections stipulated that we were required to allow campaigning on our campus. Therefore, we were not permitted to remove any signs. Another Catholic church in our area was flooded with signs specifically urging Catholics to vote pro-choice. This represents a serious violation of our witness as Catholics, and one can imagine similar issues presenting themselves in future elections. We’re also concerned that there may be a safety concern with inviting the broader public into our space. So, we’re pulling out. Let’s pray for a spirit of open dialogue and civil discourse in our state and our nation.

Second, please be on the lookout for a letter from me or Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. who will be assisting us with a parish directory update. Basically, we need to update our parishioner addresses, phone numbers, etc. to make sure we have accurate data, and to get all that data into a digital database so we can access it quickly. This will be a great help to us in the office. Thank you for helping us with this project, which has been a long time coming!

Third, in brighter news, you may have seen our parish semi-annual report in the bulletin a couple of weeks ago. In the past six months, we reported a $36,533 surplus in revenue! And this is after several capital expenses we have undertaken to improve and beautify our parish—a renovation of our St. Anthony statue garden in memory of Dee Farinelli, an attractive and cost-saving change from mulch to stone in our pond landscaping area, a plumbing overhaul in our church restroom, and an updated fire
suppression system in our kitchen, among other things. Thank you, parishioners, for all for your commitment to our parish, for sacrificial giving, and your love for God. Thanks, too, to all who volunteer in our pirohy ministry, which provides valuable income for us. Currently, we are putting much of this $36,533 in investments to help ensure the continued financial stability of our parish. A firm footing makes us ready for mission so we can accomplish our purpose as a parish. Thanks be to God!