Dear parishioners,
The following is a summary of the most recent finance council meeting, which took place a couple weeks ago.
We have not yet received the 4th quarter statements for our investments, so we do not have updated numbers for those accounts. However, our most recent information is that our investments with the Catholic Investment Trust are at $503,601; our Vocation Endowment is at $127,176; and our School Endowment is at $134,505. Once we have the 4th quarter numbers, I will be sure to provide an update.
We budgeted to receive $14,000 from our Christmas collection. We fell a little short of this mark, as we only collected just over $11,000. A few factors likely play into this. Firstly, whenever Christmas occurs on Saturday, as it did last year, parishes usually have a lower attendance, despite the fact that we still have the obligation to attend. Of course, another factor is those who travel for Christmas. Lastly, with the illnesses that were spreading around Christmas time, many were ill and were not able to attend. All of these are likely true for our parish.
Regarding Sunday collections, as of last weekend’s bulletin, we reported that we were at that time $29,413 above our budgeted amount. This is tremendous! Thank you for your continued strong support of our parish! Regarding Holy Day collections, we budgeted to receive $1,500 from the Masses for the Immaculate Conception; this we did, collecting $1,518. For the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, we budgeted much less than we normally do because it was not a day of obligation this year. So, we budgeted to collect $300, and only collected $47. That being said, we are still above budget $329 YTD in Holy Day collections.
Currently, our building and maintenance account contains $46,000. This is higher than usual because of our long-term planning process. Having placed a temporary freeze on all non-urgent capital maintenance issues until we have a clear direction for our future, we have not taken on many of the long list of capital maintenance issues that need to be done. Our mission account currently contains $2,900. Thank you again for your continued support of our second collections!
Overall, our operating expenses are $2,758 under budget. Additionally, as of the end of December, we are showing a net income of $47,713.
Once again, thank you so much for your ongoing support of our parish! Your generosity allows us to continue our work in Paulding County.
Blessings to you all!
Fr. Ammanniti
