Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

I’d like to introduce the final draft of the building master plan (click here) report for Our Lady of the Falls Parishes, namely Holy Ghost and Notre Dame, and McDonell Area Catholic Schools.  This all began back in 2020 when our city parishes and MACS contracted with Meitler Consulting to establish a pastoral plan with goals for the coming years. 

 

Following that pastoral plan, our Long-Range Planning Committee, with representation from our city parishes and MACS, obtained proposals from several local and regional architectural firms to assist us in developing a master plan for the long-term building needs of our Catholic community.  Holy Ghost and Notre Dame Parishes, along with MACS, contracted with Plunkett Raysich Associates (PRA) of Milwaukee to assist us in the planning process.  The architects met with us, toured our buildings, and developed proposals.  Even though St. Charles Borromeo Parish was not part of the process, consideration was given to their campus, particularly their school building.  Last May, PRA gave three public presentations to our community of their findings and recommendations.  Based on the feedback they received, they developed this report with revised options and recommendations for our parishes and schools.  I invite you to look through the report.

 

What’s next?  It is important to note that this master plan (click here) makes recommendations for both the next few years, as well as the next decade or two.  It is not our intent to accomplish all these things at once.  For the immediate future, the report recommendations are most pertinent to elements of our parish campuses.  As you may know, our Diocese has embarked on the Inspired By the Spirit capital campaign in which all parishes will be participating to raise funds for both parish and diocesan needs.  Holy Ghost and Notre Dame will run their campaigns in the first half of 2023.  Anticipating that, our campaign directors will lead both parishes in feasibility studies this fall.  For Holy Ghost, this will likely concern the renewal of the church interior, as well as a few external projects.  For Notre Dame, this will likely concern the future of the convent building, bathrooms and handicap accessibility for the Goldsmith Chapel, and possibly more depending on parishioner interest.  Again, I invite our parishioners to study the report and consider what are the greatest needs for the future of our parishes.

 

Our long-range planning committee will continue meeting to plan for the needs of MACS following the diocesan capital campaign.  Thanks to all of you who have been engaged in this process so far.  I’d particularly like to thank TJ Proue, my co-chair on the Long-Range Planning Committee, our committee members, and our architects at PRA for bringing about the completion of this report.  Our Catholic community has been blessed with many resources and many generous people, and it is exciting to think about how these will better serve Christ and his Church in the future.

 

Fr. Jesse Burish