Fr. Robinson's Letter 1/12/25

Dear Parishioners, Visitors, and Friends of St. Augustine Parish,

On July 1, 2022, St. Augustine Parish was created, amidst a reorganization that the Archdiocese of Chicago had led to strengthen the presence of the Catholic Church in the area. Our new parish emerged from the unification of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Parish in Posen and St. Christopher Parish in Midlothian. This unification included the receiving of a combined 227 years of parish life, along with the parishioners present at the time and the buildings belonging to the two parishes. In December 2023, the buildings in Posen were sold and after paying off part of the $1.2 million debt, the Archdiocese forgave the remainder and the parish received just over $800,000, which is in a CD earning interest. The current property of the parish is the Midlothian campus which contains the church, rectory (residence), school, ministry center (aka Unit D), parking lot, and convent (office).

Over the past two and a half years, our parish has been growing stronger financially and pastorally. This is a unification that has truly worked and created a vibrant parish community that is growing every day. Before the parishes merged, an average of 900 people attended Mass each weekend at the two churches. Since the unification, three official counts have been made: in October 2022, 1,200 people attended Mass, in October 2023, more than 1,800 attended Mass, and in October 2024, 2,029 people attended. This is an attendance that has not been seen since 2002.

Although it is wonderful to see the fruits of our new parish, there are also enormous challenges that need our attention. One challenge is the pastoral care of this large number of families that are part of our community. Another challenge is the adequate maintenance of buildings that need repairs and adaptations. With both the Parish Pastoral Council and the Parish Finance Council we have been discerning and discussing solutions, opportunities and initiatives to face the challenges that are proposed to us with firmness and efficiency.

With this greater number of people that make up our community, it is necessary that we can offer events and opportunities so that we can get to know each other a little better and strengthen our fraternal ties that ensure a strong cohesion for the future. However, the current layout of our buildings makes it difficult for us to do the integration process that we need to do in this parish. Currently we have several rooms for meetings. We have 4 rooms in Unit D. There is a larger room called the Franciscan Room in the basement of the school. Finally, we have the school gymnasium, which has been used for combined activities such as sports training, bingo, sports tournaments, receptions, and other school and church events.

When we think about holding events that include more than 100 people, we have no other space than the gymnasium, which has several limitations. First, the gymnasium is primarily intended for sporting events. It is only logical that the school teams need time and space to practice. Currently, they have four afternoons available, since bingo is held on Mondays, which is a parish event that raises funds for the school. There are four afternoons for boys & girls’ basketball and volleyball teams to practice. We all know that sports are very important for the health and development of students, as well as for attracting families to the school. We cannot therefore eliminate more evenings for training because this has other consequences for the strengthening of the school, which as we know many Catholic schools are fragile due to costs and lack of scholarships. Second, the gymnasium is not very convenient for holding church events. For example, there is no air conditioning, which limits events during the summer. In addition, we have an elevator that only fits one person and must press a button all the time to go up or down. Our older parishioners and those with mobility limitations have difficulty getting to the gym and some prefer not to attend events. But the location is also sometimes an impediment for some who prefer not to walk there and rather get in their vehicles and drive away when passing through the parking lot. In short, it has been difficult at times to schedule church, religious education, and ministries’ events because of the sports practices and tournaments that take place, in addition to the inconvenience of the location for many parishioners.

As a parish community we cannot be limited to the Sunday Mass for gathering. It is necessary that we have sufficient space for the integration process. Therefore, together with the pastoral and financial councils, we have decided to find a solution. The most appropriate thing to do on this campus is to demolish the convent building and build a new one that contains the parish office and a large event space. The convent building is located on the east side of the church, next to Mary’s Garden. The current building served as a residence for religious sisters. The rooms were small, making it difficult to expand them or raise the roof a bit to make more room. In addition, the building will soon need improvements such as a new roof, new boiler, and that is without even addressing the fact that half of the building is currently vacant and there is not much that can be done there efficiently. The solution we see is to demolish it to create a new building that will meet the present needs of the current parish community.

The new building will contain the parish offices and a large hall, complete with a full kitchen, bathrooms, and a storage room. This building will be directly connected to the church by a hallway, which will be a great convenience for all parishioners and visitors. Mary’s Garden and pathways will be part of the plans.

The construction of this new building has an estimated cost of six million dollars, of which the parish already has one million dollars set aside for this project. That reserve does not affect the normal operations of the parish, but it is extra money obtained from the sale of the buildings in Posen and the inheritance of a condo left to us by a parishioner. So we need to raise five million dollars.

The plan to raise these funds is a 5-year capital pledge campaign by parishioners. The Archdiocese has asked all parishes to participate in the Generation to Generation Campaign, which seeks to raise funds for seminaries, priests' pensions, school scholarships, and to strengthen parishes. This campaign came at the very time when we were talking about the new building. Therefore, we have made the main goal of the campaign in our parish the construction of the new parish building. Thus we already have the fundraising company to work with and the whole structure in place to make the request for pledges. In January 2025, we will begin to have individual and collective meetings with some parishioners, and then others will make their pledge at Mass in a few months. Hopefully, we will be able to raise the largest amount of money for this building from our own parishioners. We also hope to solicit the support of neighbors and friends, as well as area businesses, who will also benefit from this project.

What are we going to do with the new building? It will serve as the main events center for the parish. It will help us to have receptions, dinners, and integration events. We will be able to gather after Masses such as St. Joseph’s Table and the Guadalupe Novena. There will be events such as the Christmas ministers' dinner, SPRED dinners, youth events, and many other initiatives necessary to continue building and strengthening the community. We have also thought that we will be able to rent the new parish hall for business meetings during the day and outside events such as wedding receptions and quinceañeras. This building will be of great benefit to the parish community and to other surrounding organizations.

In conclusion, a new building is necessary for the strengthening of our growing parish community. This parish has a stable future. We have many families with children and youth, which guarantees the Catholic presence in the area. We are located in an area with easy access by main roads. We have a large parking lot. Our school welcomes students from different cities. Our parishioners come from different cultural backgrounds, which shows the vitality and diversity of this community. Ultimately, this new building is a sign of hope for the Catholic community in our parish and in the area. Let us all join together to make it possible. We have inherited the efforts of parishioners, priests and nuns who worked hard to build what we can enjoy today. Now it is up to us to take good care of what we received and adapt it to our current needs. In this way we will continue to transmit the truth of the Gospel and the Good News from our Christian faith from generation to generation. May God continue to bless your families and our parish community.

 

Fr. Robinson Ortiz

Pastor