Published: September 27, 2015

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

My first word to you this weekend is about next weekend: next Sunday, October 4, is “GRAND Day!” On that day, we especially welcome grandparents and their grandchildren to our 12 noon Mass and to the party which follows! This means that everyone is invited, of course, because everyone is someone’s grandchild!

So please, come out to enjoy not only the spiritual benefits of Holy Mass, but also the hamburgers and hotdogs, the music and balloons, the face painting and pony rides, the petting zoo and the ice cream, and just the chance to visit with fellow parishioners and friends, young and old! GRAND Day is always a grand experience not only of the Lord’s blessings to us but also of our fellowship in Christ. It will be all the more fun this year now that we have all of Cathedral square and our renovated Parish Hall to use for the festivities! The members of our Development Committee are hard at work once again planning a great time for everyone, so please do your best to invite your family members and friends from other parishes and out-of-town to join us here for GRAND Day at the Cathedral!

Now for something more serious. The next time you come to the Cathedral, I invite you to enter the main entrance via the plaza on the south side of the church. Before rushing in to enjoy the quiet, cool beauty of our worship space, notice the sad state of the exterior walls of the building. In spots you can readily see that moisture has gotten underneath the surface of the walls; in more than a few places, the stucco-like material that covers the underlying brick has peeled away. This is not good! It’s unsightly and if not corrected it would become dangerous. So it means that it’s time for us to “waterproof” the Cathedral’s exterior once again. (In fact it’s been a bit too long: experts say this should be done every 12 to 15 years, and it’s been close to 20!)

This will entail the removal of the gray exterior coating that hides the red brick underneath, and its replacement with a new waterproof coating. Not only the walls but the exteriors of our windows will all be resealed and repainted. Gutters and drains will be refurbished, and the footings around the base of the building sealed again. It’s a massive job, given the size of the Cathedral: while some of the work along the west and north sides might be accomplished with cranes, on the east and south sides of the building we’ll need to put up scaffolding, all the way up to the roof line and up the steeple! It will be a sight to see! We’ll still have access to the building while the contractor, Associated Waterproofing Corp., does the work, but certainly it will be an inconvenience for the 4 to 5 months needed to complete the project.

This leads to the most serious part of my message. The project has to be paid for! Since our recent project renovating and enlarging our Parish Hall spent everything we had in our diocesan savings and building accounts, all we have to use now is the interest which comes in quarterly from our “Dedicated” building trust fund at the Baton Rouge Area Foundation . . . and your generosity! In order to avoid having to borrow the money and then pay back that debt over many years, I’m going to appeal to everyone to be especially, sacrificially generous in helping to pay for this project! We’ve done it before for projects like our wonderful pipe organ in 1992, the refurbishment of our stained-glass windows in 1998, and the new roof in 2008. It’s time to do it again!

If it hasn’t yet arrived, in the next few days you should get a letter from me: I’m writing to all of our “identified givers,” other parishioners, and friends of the Cathedral. The best possible response will be an immediate gift of at least $1,000 from every one of you! Obviously not everyone has that kind of money just lying around, but it actually would not be difficult for most of us to give that — or even twice or three times that! — by giving a portion of it each month over the next 6 months to a year. You can start anytime you like, and the sooner the better! Whether you drop a check into the collection or use the “bill pay” feature of your bank account, make a note that it is your “extra” gift for our beloved Cathedral church building!

Thank you already for the generous spirit of giving that you have always demonstrated. As the oldest house of worship in Baton Rouge, in many ways our Cathedral is the “spiritual heart” of the city. But what keeps it beating are the big hearts of its parishioners and friends! For that you have the gratitude not only of me, but also of the Bishop and other priests and all the faithful of our area. More importantly, your kindness is noticed and will be rewarded by the Lord!

Sincerely in Him,

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