Parish Center Building Project

Dear Parishioners,

As we continue to expand the vision for our beautiful campus here at St. Catherine’s, we are reaching out to all our parishioners to gauge support to build a Parish Center. As our Parish continues to grow, so do the needs of our Parishioners. I have spoken to all of you about our efforts to bring a Youth Minister to St. Catherine’s – our new Youth Minister has just started and soon you will be seeing the fruits of his efforts. Our Parish also continues to grow with new families and our Religious Education program is vibrant and helping to build up the faith in our children. We continue to have new opportunities to expand our Ministries here and in our community. A Parish as vital as ours needs a sacred space to be able to accommodate our Ministries, our Religious Education and Youth Ministry programs and to support all our Parishioners with the many events and programs we can and hopefully will undertake.

For these reasons, I would like to understand your desire to support this project. We are providing a link to a very short survey you can take online in just a few minutes to voice your support. You can also email us or call the Parish Office. Whatever method you use, it is critical we have your feedback. If the vast majority of our Parishioners are not in support of bringing a Parish Center to our campus, I will not move forward. To date we have done some preliminary investigation on design and costs, and I would like to share this information with you to help you in your decision process. Final designs would be based on your feedback of our Parish’s needs. 

Building and Location – The Parish Center would be located in the grassy space adjacent to our parking lot, which would allow us to leverage the existing storm basin and septic system. Its architecture will compliment the Church and the space would include an office, five separate rooms that could be utilized for meeting space or classrooms, plus a kitchenette and bathrooms. There would be some flexible configuration of rooms to accommodate larger or smaller groups.

Parish Uses – All Parish Ministries and groups would have access to the Parish Center. In addition to our formal Religious Education program, our new Youth Ministry, Ministry programs, scripture studies, community events and outreach, and special events like fund raisers and repasts would all be possible. The Parish Center would be available to support the needs of all our parishioners.

Financing – We have a preliminary estimate of approximately $1.5M to build the Parish Center. It is important to note we would not undertake a new Capital Campaign to fund the construction, given the sacrificial giving many of our Parishioners have made to help rebuild our church. The funding would come primarily from our savings reserve, (53%); asset sale only if needed (13%); donations from Parishioners who are financially able and want to do so (7%); with the balance to be financed in a 5 or 10 year interest-bearing mortgage with the Diocese, (27%). Our current income will allow us to service the Diocesan loan along with anticipated maintenance costs.

Please know that the financial health of our Parish is of the utmost importance to me – our Finance Committee and I are confident we would not put any undue financial burdens on our Parish. More importantly, it is all of our responsibility to continue to build up the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth in the Community of Pittstown. This new space will help support that mission, allow us new outreach both within and outside of our Parish and continue to make St. Catherine of Siena Church all that God intended her to be. Please take the survey or email/call us to make your voice heard as part of our faith community.

Faithfully yours,

Father Chester Zalubski