Parish Update From Fr. Sebastian

Happy Feast Day of St. Joseph, our Patron Saint
I welcome you to the month of March, dedicated to St. Joseph which for us is always a special a month since he is our Patron Saint.   This year has also been named the year of St. Joseph by Pope Francis, which is a great blessing for the entire Church. The Solemnity of St. Joseph falls on Friday, March 19^th. To celebrate the St. Joseph’s Day, Bishop Estevez will join us on Sunday, March 21^st at the 10:00a.m. to preside at Mass. Unfortunately, this year due to the restrains of the COVID virus we will not have a reception following the Mass.   I hope you can join us on this special day.

Youth Ministry
This coming weekend our High School students will be attending a retreat at Marywood. I want to thank Katie Gunkle, our Youth Minister and George Doyle, our Echo Apprentice for all of their hard work in preparing this wonderful spiritual event for our teens. Please keep all those involved with the retreat in prayer this weekend.

Confirmation
We will welcome Bishop Estevez to our Parish on Saturday, April 24^th to celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation with our 8^th grade PREP and School students. I am incredibly grateful to our PREP director, Mrs. Lourdes Flemming and our School Principal, Mrs. Robin Fecitt for their leadership in ensuring the students have been prepared for this great bestowing of grace found in Confirmation. It is thanks to the hard work of parents, catechists and school teachers over these many years that our 8^th graders are well suited for this special day. The students will be attending a Confirmation retreat on Saturday, March 27^th and I ask that you pray for them and the retreat leaders.

Fish Fry
I want to thank the members of the Knights of Columbus for their great efforts in hosting the drive-by-fish-fry last Friday evening. If you missed out no worries since there are two more scheduled. This Friday the 5^th and Friday, March 26^th will offer you a great opportunity to enjoy some great food as well as support the work of the Knights. See the bulletin more details.
Capital Campaign Update
I am excited to share some news with your regarding our Capital Campaign and the great success of phase two, The Legacy of Fr. Bernie! This past Monday we began the renovation of the Main Courtyard. This great outdoor space is home to the start of the Easter Vigil, our Nativity scene, receptions, and Confirmation photos with the Bishop just to name a small handful of Parish activities which occur in this area.   During this renovation, the front entrance doors of the Main Church will be closed and request that you enter and exit through the side doors. We greatly appreciate your patience as we complete this project. If the weather cooperates the work is scheduled to be completed by Palm Sunday. Please pray for good weather as rain will necessarily delay the concrete work.
In addition to the courtyard, we will begin some exterior renovations to the Rectory and the Food Bank. These two projects consist or power washing, painting, window replacement and siding. Also scheduled in this next phase is a re-coating of the roof of the Historic Church and repainting of the entrance sign to our Parish Cemetery.
We have received the Bishop’s approval to begin planning a full interior and exterior restoration of the Historic Church.   This beautiful building is cherished by all of us here at St. Joseph and it is time now for us to ensure it is preserved for many generations to come. We will begin working with PQH Architects to create a plan that will address the many needs of the Church and I look forward to sharing these plans with you when they have been completed.
The external restoration of our School Gymnasium is coming to an end this week and the project has gone incredibly well. We are finalizing the plans for the interior of the gym which consist of a new floor, new basketball hoops and enhancements to the bleachers.

I am extremely grateful to all those who have supported phase one and phase two or our Capital Campaign. I am grateful to our Capital Campaign team who is reaching out to those how have not yet made a contribution. Due to your great generosity, we are truly preparing our beautiful campus to serve the needs of generations to come.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Fr. Sebastian