2024 Beacons of Light Annual Report

A Letter from Rev. Ronald C. Haft

Rev. Ronald C. Haft
Temporary Administrator

Greetings in the name of the Lord:

At the time of the writing of this annual report letter we had snow on the ground and it was 19 degrees. Hopefully when you are reading this letter we are experiencing melting snow and warmer temperatures. Perhaps we are also seeing some of the trees starting to bud and the greenery of bulbs beginning to pop up out of the soil.

The Beacons of Light implementation began July 1, 2022 and is a five-year plan to move us from the maintenance of a system of 208 parishes to 57 families of parishes growing the Mission of the Church to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is the first written annual report for our Family of Parishes. This is not to say that we have not had reports before now: our prior pastor, Fr. Andrew Umberg, chose to give recorded talks during Mass intermittently to serve as a report to the Family. We are now over two and a half years into Beacons of Light, so it is good to have something in writing to update you on our progress. One of the first acts I took as Temporary Administrator was to make a change to our Beacons of Light Planning Committee which had representatives from all of our parishes. The Planning Committee is now the Family Pastoral Council of Our Lady of Divine Providence Family of Parishes. A pastoral council serves to advise the pastor. I believe this change was important to elevate the team from a planning group to a part of the movement from maintenance to mission.

In my short time as Temporary Administrator, I have seen more fully how many dedicated individuals we have in each of our parishes, including the many faithful laity, staff, and clergy. Thank you to everyone for all you are doing for our Family of Parishes. As a Family, we experience many joys and sorrows. Joy at Sunday Mass, which is the source and summit of why we are here. Joy when people are receiving the Sacraments for the first time. Joy also when we gather for outreach and socials. We also experience sorrows. Anytime a loved one or fellow parishioner is laid to rest we are in sorrow. Our Family of

Parishes experienced a true sorrow at the closing of Mother of Christ on Sunday, December 29, 2024. The final Mass was celebrated with great beauty, followed by a reception at the St. Bernard campus; yet, there was a sadness in the air that day. A second Mass has been added at St. Bernard to meet the needs of the people of Mother of Christ as they grieve their parish church. Please always remember the people of Mother of Christ in your prayers.

When I became Temporary Administrator, we welcomed Fr. Henry Hoffmann as a parochial vicar. He is working hard and doing wonderfully as the Director of Liturgy & Worship. Fr. George Jacquemin also continues to serve us well as a parochial vicar. You may be wondering what has been done during this Beacons of Light process. We have not been idle. We have been working. We have developed our Family Leadership Team: Fr. Henry Hoffmann, Fr. George Jacquemin, Sr. Margie Niemer, OSF, Ms. Kathy Rothschild, Mrs. Randi Hom, Ms. Anne Ketzer, and myself. This group and the Family Pastoral Council works with the pastor in developing and growing a vision for the Family.

Recently, we have been gathering data to help us evaluate our parishes. We previously published the donor data, which told us the great majority of our donations are received from parishioners over age 65. We have additionally been working to analyze the trends in sacramental data. At this time, we know that we have more funerals than baptisms. More baptisms means more families coming to know Jesus Christ, so we have a lot of evangelization work to do, especially with young families. Another piece of data we are working on is the evaluation of the buildings on our five campuses. It is important for us to know the overall condition and future capital improvement needs.

This annual report also includes basic financial data for each parish for the fiscal year July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024. In the coming weeks, we will hold a Family-wide survey. This in-pew survey will help us better understand parishioners’ perspectives, especially when it comes to the celebration of Sunday Mass. We have 1,300 people worshiping every Sunday throughout our Family of Parishes. At the conclusion of the five-year Beacons of Light process, our goal must be to continue to have all 1,300 people—and even more—joining us in worshiping Jesus Christ. We have started to combine some ministries and services, which will increase over the next year. Should I become the next pastor, I would like to see one, unified bulletin for all five parishes by October 2025. This will aid us in improving communication. As you read this report and the message from each Director, we hope you will be more informed about what is happening in our Family of Parishes.

As we move forward in the Beacons of Light journey, we are no longer five individual parishes. Rather, we are one parish with five campuses. Our mission is not “to save my parish church,” but to be good stewards of what we “need” to carry out the mission of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Yours in Christ:

Rev. Ronald C. Haft
Temporary Administrator