October 16, 2021 Column Father De Celles
Parish Finances. Please find the Finance Report of the fiscal year ended (FYE) June 30,
2021 (6/21), inserted in this bulletin. This year we’ve included a 3-year comparison, to
show the changes from pre-Covid (FYE-6/19) to now.
Operating Income (mainly from offertory and long-term maintenance collections,
and other donations) was $1,911,952, down $118,427 (or 6%) from FYE-6/20 and down
$345,943 (15%) from FYE-6/19. Operating Expenses were $1,773,068, down $168,565
(or 9%) from FYE-6/20 and down $96,569 (5%) from FYE-6/19. That left us a Net
Operating Income of $138,884, up $50,138 (or 57%) from FYE-6/20 and down
$249,374 (64%) from FYE-6/19.
The decline in Operating Income is almost entirely due to the sharp decline in our
offertory collection during the COVID Shutdown, which has declined 22% since FYE-
6/19.
The decrease in Operating Expenses is primarily due to 1) decline in costs related
to slowdown/decrease in parish activities during/post-Covid, and 2) decrease in Diocesan
assessments determined as a percentage of offertory income. However, scholarships
increased by 100% from FYE-6/19.
Extraordinary Income was all over the place in the 3 years. The Capital campaign
income relates to the Altar Rail and Pulpit installation last year, as does most of the
Capital improvement expenditures. This year we received a $228,000 DIAL dividend, as
I have previously discussed (see Bulletin of May 2, 2021). This left us with a Net
Surplus (the bottom line) of $ $326,212.
On the Balance Sheet side of things, we had Cash of $226,857 in checking and
$1,829,347 in savings, $ 537,728 of which is “restricted,” i.e., dedicated to paying for
Long-Term Maintenance or “extraordinary objectives.”
We also had $158,200 in Loans Payable at the end of the fiscal year, which
represented a “PPP” Loan from the federal government. The full amount of this loan was
forgiven in July 2021.
Please feel free to contact me or Kirsti Tyson in the parish office with any
questions about the report.
“Time for an Exodus from Public Schools?,” Below is an excerpt from an article of this
title published by the Cardinal Newman Society on October 1, 2021. The Authors are
Mary Rice Hasson, JD, and Theresa Farnan, PhD. These two brilliant women are both
mothers, wives, and experts in studying the malignant ideologies infecting our schools.
They have spoken several times in our parish. The Excerpt:
Laura Morris, a public-school teacher in Loudoun County, Va., was excited about
returning to a classroom of “amazing” 5th grade students this fall. Instead, in August she
quit her job.
In a short, heart-wrenching speech before the county school board that was
shared on social media, Morris explained why: the school district’s “transgender”
policies and “equity” trainings promote “political ideologies that do not square with
who I am as a believer in Christ.” Her final words—before the school board silenced her
microphone—urged “all parents and staff in this county to flood the private schools.”
In other words, leave public schools. Catholics should listen well.
A good education forms the whole person: intellectual, emotional, moral and
spiritual. But today’s public schools promote a curriculum that is radically antagonistic
to Judeo-Christian morality and anthropology. Public schools of past generations were
not perfect, but they incorporated an implicitly Judeo-Christian moral viewpoint and
vision of the person (anthropology). No more.
Current public-school curricula and programs view the person through the lenses
of atheism and materialism, often distorted even further by gender ideology. As a result,
Catholic children in public school must navigate a school culture hostile to “
foundational Catholic beliefs. They face pressure from peers, teachers and
administrators to use wrong sex pronouns that affirm a classmate’s “gender identity”
and to pretend “everything’s normal” when a male student who identifies as a “girl,” for
example, undresses in the female locker room. LGBTQ-inclusive sex education programs
break down modesty and function as “how to” instructions for children too young to
understand or even legally consent to sexual activity.
At the same time, the militantly secular atmosphere within public schools sends
the message to Catholic students that their religion has no place in the public square and
that they should be ashamed of Catholic moral teachings, which are painted as intolerant
and hateful. The Church’s beliefs about marriage and gender are described as bigoted,
“transphobic,” and a form of “cis-heteronormative” oppression. The schools exalt the
individual as “self-creator” and define fulfillment in terms of pleasure and self-
gratification.
The impact is predictable. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate
reported in 2015 that weekly Mass attendance was only five percent among millennials
who attended non-Catholic schools.
Unless we take seriously, right now, the need to give every Catholic child a
Catholic education, our churches will be nearly empty of young people before the decade
is over. And our nation will suffer as well…
This really is a watershed moment. Public school parents are shocked at the
prospect of daughters changing for gym in the presence of male (“transgender”)
students, angered by the erosion of athletic opportunities for their daughters, and
troubled that teachers encourage impressionable kindergarteners and vulnerable teens to
“explore” alternative “gender identities.” They are alarmed over school policies that
intentionally keep them in the dark about their own child’s “gender” confusion and
frustrated that they are unable to shield their children from school curricula or programs
that will undermine their child’s faith. Remote learning during the COVID lockdowns
gave many parents an unvarnished look at their children’s daily lessons and the “woke”
indoctrination embedded within.
Many parents today are rightly questioning whether public schools are the right
choice for their children. There is no better time for Catholic dioceses to explain why a
Catholic education—whether at home or in hybrid, classical, or parish schools—is not
only a good option but the best option. The Church must do three things at once:
1. educate parents about the ideological capture of public education and the very real
threats that gender ideology and “wokeness” pose to their children’s faith and
psychological stability;
2. convey the vision of Catholic education (broadly speaking), which offers unparalleled
benefits for faith, character-building and educational excellence; and
3. work alongside parents and the larger Catholic community to ensure that financial
costs will never prevent a Catholic child from receiving a Catholic education, not
only by reducing costs in parochial schools but also by promoting less costly options.
These steps require a radical shift in mindset not only among parents but also
among priests and diocesan personnel, who have long regarded public education as a
lesser but benign alternative. Perhaps that was true in the past; it is not true today….
Now, more than ever, Catholic parents, clergy, parishes and philanthropists need
to prioritize Catholic education. Like Laura Morris, we must be unafraid to say that
today’s public schools promote “political ideologies do not square with who [we are] as
believer[s] in Christ.” Our children deserve better, and there are no do-overs on
childhood. Let’s give our kids the education they need not only for the here and now, but
for eternal life.
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles