Needing Money to Continue God's Work

St. Mary Catholic Church of Wayne began its pledge drive Sunday to reduce a debt of $4,557,000.

Rev. David Burgard, the pastor of the parish, made the declaration for the debt reduction campaign called “Honoring Our Past-Faith in Our Future” during the homily. Burgard understands why the church made the renovations to the campus.

“The parish expansion has improved the aesthetics of our campus and this area of the local community, and it helps to make a more welcoming church to those who come here,” Burgard said. “It is also helping us to carry out our church mission of worship, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, and serving the people of God.”

The plan, which was developed for the parish by the Archdiocese of Detroit, along with a financial adviser and Burgard, calls for parishioners to donate enough money to eliminate at least $500,000 of the debt by 2013.

The campaign calls for worshippers to make the following pledge contributions if possible: $1,080, $1,440, $1,800, $2,700, $3,600, $5,400, $10,000 and $25,000 or more. All pledge amounts are payable over a three year period and are tax-deductible. A payment can be made monthly, quarterly, semiannually, annually or all at once.

Money from the pledge drive is paid to the Archdiocese of Detroit. The archdiocese for this year will charge the parish no interest on the debt. The principle of the debt is $3,476,600 and the interest is $1,080,400.

“If the debt cannot be repaid, I don't know what would happen,” Burgard said. “There is no legal way to pursue getting the debt from the parish. Ultimately, if the parish didn't pay, the archdiocese would have to swallow it up. Hopefully, we would be in dialogue with the archdiocese if it became clear that the parish couldn't realistically repay the loan in the foreseeable future.”

The debt was accumulated from 2000 to 2002 when the parish decided to make renovations to the campus. In a three year period, the parish built a church-school connector, a new activity center, an outreach center, a new parking lot, a new parish office, and new apartments for the nuns of St. Mary Catholic Church.

A Day of Fixes and Grants for the Wayne City Council

The Council and the city engineer agreed on a start date for the Newburg Road Resurfacing and Watermain Replacement Project.

The project will be replacing an 80-year-old water pipe on the west side of Newburg road. The road portion of the project will be handled by Wayne and the water pipe portion is handled by Detroit.

A meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Wayne Library. The meeting will have all the parties contracted to complete the project.

City Engineer Ramzi J. El-Gharib said all citizens are welcome at the meeting because he wanted all concerns from citizens to be heard.

The plan is going to impact Newburg Road all the way to Glenwood Road. Traffic will be blocked for residents that live near the project.

The water main portion of project is scheduled to begin Monday and end April 16. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department will be completing the water pipe portion of the project. This part of the project costs the citizens of Wayne nothing.