Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: December 06, 2020
Our Advent season is now underway. As I mentioned in this space last week, I hope this December can be a more prayerful time than usual, at the least because the coronavirus is keeping us all more isolated at home. Our intercessory prayers for others as well as our own praises and petitions we offer up don’t have to be as rushed this year!
I can take this opportunity to mention a few other things that have been on my mind. One of these is money. You can be sure that our Director of Administration, Ms. Lorie Watson, and I have been paying close attention to the parish finances. The 2020-2021 fiscal year will be halfway done on January 1, and we’ll be sharing our income and expense totals with you once we get there. It appears that our diminished income has stabilized at about 75% or so of pre-pandemic levels, which compared to many parishes’ experience is good. One thing that has helped us all out is that Bishop Duca gave every parish a 10% across the board break on our “Parish Share” payments – that’s the “tax” on our regular income paid to the diocesan corporation. Of course, since the diocesan corporation has almost no other significant sources of income than parochial collections and its own Bishop’s Annual Appeal, I am sure that this shortfall is impacting the diocesan budget severely. In fact I know so, since they’ve already admitted having had to lay off almost 15% of all diocesan employees, with more terminations likely still to come.
So thank you for continuing to give! Our Cathedral Parish needs to continue to pay its bills, and so depends on what you drop into our baskets when you come to church. Even better, we urge you to arrange for your bank to transfer funds to us “automatically” each month, as if we were one of the bills you pay. Each bank and credit union has slightly different procedures for this, but they will all be happy to set this up for you, and usually at no charge at all.
As far as coming to church here at the Cathedral, it appears that virtually everyone agrees that our worship space is safe and comfortable for those who are coming to Mass “live and in person.” I continue to urge everyone whose health is compromised by age or other condition to be cautious: the Covid virus does not discriminate in favor of religious people!
Frankly, I’m only really worried about our Christmas Eve vigil Mass at 4 pm on Thursday, December 24. For as long as I can remember, back into the mid-1980s, it’s been extremely crowded, even uncomfortably so, mostly with visitors. I hope their good sense in the midst of this pandemic – coupled with the fact that Christmas is not a holy day of obligation this year – will prompt many to come the week before or the week afterwards to see the trees, poinsettias, and crèche scene. I already know many of our own parishioners are going to do this. On Christmas Eve we won’t be able to turn people away or police them if they refuse to wear masks for our protection, so I hope it doesn’t turn into a “spreader event.” We’ll see.
As I mentioned last week, this Tuesday (December 8), is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It also is not a holy day of obligation this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but we will have Mass at 12:00 noon if you’d like to come. And you won’t have to worry about crowds!
And a last reminder: don’t forget our Advent Giving Tree. Over the next three weekends, stop by the tree in the rear of the church, and help make a needy child happy this Christmas. Either bring an unwrapped toy in a gift bag or offer a monetary donation (make checks out to “St. Joseph Cathedral”). We will forward these to the St. Vincent de Paul Society who again have offered to organize the actual gift-giving from the whole Baton Rouge community. And on the behalf of the children and their parents: thank you!
Yours in the coming Christ,
Very Rev. Paul D. Counce
