Dear Friends,

I began my 20th year as pastor of Holy Innocents in September. With six years remaining until retirement from active ministry, I pray to remain as pastor of Holy Innocents. But I know that is not my decision. One of my goals before retirement is to balance the budget of our parish. Our school budget breaks even each year. With tuition and the grants we receive, our school is doing very well. The parish is not. The parish has been deficit spending for years…spending more money than we are bringing in. We need to balance our budget.

Next year’s projected deficit for our parish is $340,775. There is no sugar coating this number. It is a tremendous deficit. Although I am not including all of the details, our Business Manager has handed me a very bleak financial forecast for the year ahead. And now I want you to be aware of the situation that we are in. This did not happen overnight. We have been deficit spending for several years, but the sale of 14 buildings has helped us to bring more money into the parish than we have spent. Since we have no more buildings to sell, we need to face reality.

Our Pastoral and Finance Councils will continue to look at ways to trim our expenses and raise our revenue. My goal is to have reached a balanced budget by the time we celebrate our parish’s 100th Anniversary in 2027. Overcoming our annual deficit and sustaining a balanced budget will only happen when our weekly giving increases. We average about $6,750 each weekend. As you realize, it is not enough to support the parish. Our parish needs to raise about $10,000 each weekend to realize a balanced budget. That is a difference of $3,250. That is a lot of money but provided everyone does their part, I believe that we can obtain that amount. For that to happen I have a relatively simple plan.

Each week in the collection we receive on average 1,000 one dollar bills. The great majority of these one dollar bills are given as singles. Some envelopes contain multiple one dollar bills, but not many. Most come in as singles. Yes, many people are giving the same one dollar that they gave 30 years ago. And today, you cannot buy a cup of coffee for one dollar. I am asking all those putting a single dollar bill in the collection each week to change that one dollar to five dollars. And if you are giving five already, please consider ten. And so on. But my sincere hope is that one dollar bills become five dollar bills. By doing so, the weekly collection would be increased by $4,000 and I believe would put us on the path to a balanced budget.

Our “One to Five Initiative” has begun. And it needs to continue…week in and week out…year after year. Please do your part. Take the one dollar bill and change it to a five dollar bill. It is the first step in eliminating the number of $340,775 and keeping this wonderful parish of Holy Innocents alive and well for the next 100 years.

With my gratitude and prayers,
Rev. Thomas M. Higgins
Pastor