Recent Focus On Building New Social Hall

[phil19034]

There is a parish near me that has an EXCELLENT parish hall. So nice in-fact, that a local catering company (a Catholic one) uses it as their home catering hall for weddings, and the like.

The parish uses it free of charge (of course because it is theirs) but also gets money when the catering company rents it out. So there are lots of wedding, conferences, etc at this parish.

Even secular conferences are hosted there, from time to time.

Perhaps, your pastor is seeing this as a way to introduce additional revenue streams to your parish, which will allow the parish to spend more money on mission.

Additionally- PERHAPS he as a rich donor who is earmarking money towards this project (and wants to remain anonymous)?

At my parish, a rich Catholic asked our pastor what his #1 dream project for our parish was. The pastor said he would love to build a new, smaller rectory on parish land in order to transform the existing rectory living space into additional offices & group meeting spaces.

So the rich Catholic gave him the money to do it. I wasn’t initially thrilled with the use of money, but now the additional meeting space is allowing the parish to schedule more parish groups during the week. Turns out the priest was correct - the upgrade was a good thing.

So cut your priest some slack. He just might be sitting on a great idea for your community & might have earmarked donations too.

God Bless

 

[Dave27360]

Thanks everyone for the (name removed by moderator)ut. If nothing else is learned it lets me know that most parish’s have to deal with capital campaign projects at some point or another. The main information to know is why the project is needed, what the new space will be used for, and to respect the priests decision.

 

[phil19034]

The main reason has been discussed at the Pastoral Council meetings is lack of space for Faith Formation classes and the building being old. At the time the building was built there were 163 families. The church website currently says there are 850 families.

Well that sounds like an excellent reason to me. A parish that doesn’t have room for ongoing faith formation is a parish not meeting the purpose of the Church.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The main reason has been discussed at the Pastoral Council meetings is lack of space for Faith Formation classes and the building being old. At the time the building was built there were 163 families. The church website currently says there are 850 families.

This is frankly some amazing growth - or maybe there was a church consolidation in your area?

It makes total sense to me that when the parish has grown 5 times as large then it might very well need a new building.
Furthermore, I am not pooh poohing the idea of helping “the community”, but if you have 850 families just in your parish then there’s a lot of needs right there to meet, even before you start looking to your non-Catholic brothers and sisters.

Definitely discuss this with your priest.

 

[1ke]

Within the last year our priest (and priest alone) decided that we need an expanded or new social hall.

That is his prerogative. He is the pastor. While listening to the consultative body of the council is certainly prudent, he seems to believe an expansion is warranted.

It was discussed by the pastoral council but was never put to a vote.

The pastoral council isn’t a voting body. It is consultative to the pastor. The pastor is the decision maker.

What are other’s thoughts?

Perhaps talk to the pastor about what he sees as the need for the expansion of the hall. Maybe you are missing the bigger picture such as trying to foster more community in order to do more outreach. A meeting/social/event gathering space can be the first step to more parish life and fellowship and more community outreach.

 

[1ke]

The main reason has been discussed at the Pastoral Council meetings is lack of space for Faith Formation classes and the building being old. At the time the building was built there were 163 families. The church website currently says there are 850 families.

Then I imagine the space that was built for 100-200 families is NOT adequate for the needs of a parish approaching 4x to 5x that number! I think your pastor is on to something.