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.

To help with the pledge drive, parishioners Patricia and Ken Dropiewski are going to give $1,500 to the debt reduction campaign this year.

“We could spend the money on other things,” she said. “The parish has given so much to the community, and we feel it is the right thing to do.”

The church-school connector allows students, parishioners and guests on the campus to stay indoors when leaving the church to go to the school portion of the campus or vice versa.

The new activity center replaced Haney Hall gymnasium as the main venue for parish activities. The new gymnasium has state of the art lighting, better floors, regulation size basketball hoops and more space than Haney Hall. The activity center allows for the parish to have more people at the fish fries during Lent. It allows more people to be at funeral luncheons. The center also allows for larger fundraisers to take place within the parish.

The church also needs the donations to keep the St. Mary Community Outreach Center open. The center helps 200 families a week from the surrounding areas. The center provides food and clothing for anyone in need. The food center gave away 185,000 pounds of food last year, according to a church letter sent out in January.

Also, the additional parking lot gives people the option to park behind the church instead of having to park at other venues. Businesses complained about members of the parish taking parking spots away from potential consumers.

The parish office needed to be replaced because of a lack of space to complete the daily tasks of running the church and the school. The previous office was filled with asbestos.

The campaign also covers the building purchased to be a residence for nuns. Currently, the parish has one nun. The new building has allowed the religious sister to stay near the parish.  The previous residence for nuns became outdated and was not used as a convent, Burgard said.

The pledge is not a substitute for the weekly collection made during Mass. The weekly collection goes toward the operating expenses of the parish. The parish will need to make $11,500 a week to meet the 2009-2010 operating budget.

St. Mary Catholic Church has been in Wayne since 1862. The parish has about 2,000 worshipers for the weekend Masses.

For more information about the pledge drive call St. Mary Catholic Church at 734-721-8745.

NOTE: The building is home to another sister. She is not part of the parish.