Parishes benefit from fund drive

When Rev. Robert Purcell first heard about the campaign, however, he remarked, "Retirement is looking better and better."

Father Purcell, pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Margaretville, initially thought the stewardship campaign was an overwhelming project. "I saw what the goal was and thought, `This is crazy,'" he remembered.

On board

Since Sacred Heart loses many of its parishioners each fall when summer residents move back home, stewardship efforts with individual donors started early.

"I made a list of people I would contact personally and said to them, `I'm going to give $10,000. Will you match it?'" said Father Purcell. "A few people did, and I became more encouraged."

BY the time he began to speak to the parish at large during weekend Masses, the pastor was able to say of the campaign, "I believe in this. This is what we need to do."

Goals

"In one of the mission churches, one whole wall is wobbly," Father Purcell noted. "The foundation is going on it. We're talking repairs to the tune of $78,000. If we have a bad winter, the roof will never hold up."

The other mission "can't go through the winter without a new furnace," he added.

Other needs

Living in Delaware County, which has many depressed areas, Father Purcell said his parishioners well understand the need for funds to help the poor and needy.

In addition, he entered a plea of his own for the portion of the capital campaign targeted to support retired priests: He is nearing retirement.

With all the issues, "the response was positive," he said.

Just in time

"We have built up reserves over almost a 20-year period, and it took all our reserves to complete this project -- so it is important that the stewardship goes well," explained pastor Rev. Donald Ophals.

Renovations to the church, he said, include a new roof with copper on the two spires and painting "everywhere there's wood on the outside of the church." A state-of-the art lightning protection system was also installed to prevent an incident like the lightning strike that caused fire and water damage to St. Patrick's Church in Catskill last year.

"The stewardship campaign will help us replace those funds, because then we have a number of new projects!" Father Ophals added. The parish also needs to replace sidewalks at the church and rectory, among other repairs, and hopes to make the church and parish hall handicapped-accessible.

Ambitious

But he said that his parishioners are supportive of the campaign, particularly how it will help their own parish.

"There's always much more support for what you're doing in your own parish than in `distant' Albany," he remarked. "But I generally do very well financially. The important thing is informing the people of what the needs are, and letting them know their participation is important."

For a parish of just 300 families, Father Ophals said, the stewardship campaign "is daunting, but we're going at it. We have such high support from so many people who really sacrifice."

(Editor's note: See advertisement in The Evangelist's print edition for information about another goal of the capital campaign.)

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