Dear Parishioners and Friends,

Shortly after I arrived at St. Francis, parishioners came to me about the need for additional facilities for the many activities in parish life. Even before the pandemic in 2020, a Building committee had worked to prepare a Master Plan for our parish’s future that included expanding the sanctuary, building additional classrooms and a proper Social Hall.

We are a vibrant and growing parish family. Over 400 new families have joined our parish in the two years I have been here. The number of our children in Faith Formation has grown from 238 to 443. We have over 30 Ministries serving the community. Mass attendance has also grown significantly…both the 10am Sunday Mass and the 12pm Sunday Mass regularly fill both the sanctuary and La Salette Hall, which also creates a need for more parking. We are bursting at the seams!

With the blessing of this growth, we are now experiencing difficulties in scheduling rooms for all the activities, events, and ministry gatherings we have. We don’t have enough classrooms to accommodate our growing Faith Formation program, the Adult FaithFormation programs, and all the other ministries, such as the Knights of Columbus, CCW, and St. Vincent de Paul that meet regularly in the church.

Last fall I began to meet with the Building Committee. We revised our Master Plan so that our needs at St. Francis could be meet in affordable steps. Based on our parish’s current giving, we can reasonably hope to accomplish a $3 million expansion. The cost for all the facilities we need is far more than that, so we are looking to go step by step to accomplish them all over time.

The first step of expansion that I perceive we both need and can hopefully afford is a classroom building. This will give us 12 more classrooms for both Faith Formation and parish ministry meetings. The ground floor rooms will be large to accommodate larger groups and special events. The upper floor will have standard class size rooms.

I realize while I am responsible for shepherding our people here, this is not MY parish, it is OUR parish. I invite you to be part of the Planning Study we are conducting to discern our future facilities at St. Francis. Your input and insights are important.

Peace and all good things,

Fr. Kevin Hargaden