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Home > Capital Campaign
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Cathedral parishioners are being asked to donate $2.7 million to the "Today’s Challenge,
Tomorrow’s Hope" Campaign. This campaign has almost been completed in the entire Diocese.
The Cathedral is one of the last parishes to participate. Anything that we collect over
and above our obligation to the Diocese ($895,000) will revert back to the Parish for its needs.
The funds will be used for the following:
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Question Corner
People have many questions about our campaign. We want to answer all of these as best we can. To help to share the information, we are taking some of the questions raised at our meeting in July and publishing them along with the response offered for everyone to read. Look for this spot each week to see what questions arise.
What is next in the capital campaign?
Soon every parishioner who has not yet made a pledge in the campaign will be receiving a letter from the pastor asking them to respond to a phone solicitation for their contribution. This phone-a-thon will be conducted by parish volunteers from September 13 to 30. If someone wants to avoid a phone call, a pledge can be made before the phone-a-thon begins by calling or emailing the parish office and making your intentions known to our campaign secretary, Cindy Cope.
When will construction begin?
Work begins on September 1, 2010, and it will continue until February 1, 2011. During this time, there will be a short period of closure for the Cathedral building to allow for safe and efficient construction. This closure period will last about four weeks. Further details on how we will accommodate our worship during this time will be announced shortly.
Does the Capital Campaign take the place of our weekly offering or the Diocesan Lenten Appeal?
No, this is a long-term pledge to help pay for the special repairs that are needed. The Parish uses your weekly offering for daily operations of the parish (salaries, utilities, etc.). The Diocesan Lenten Appeal is for Diocesan expenses (such as the work of Catholic Charities) and any remainder over the Diocesan target goes to parish operational expenses.
What can I do to help with the fundraising effort?
Willing parishioners can join the committee to visit other parishioners. They can also sign up to work on a parish phone bank which will begin in late September. Most importantly, informed parishioners can inform other parishioners of the project goals to get support for our case.
What do we use the "Cathedral Care Fund" for?
This fund is held in reserve for ordinary maintenance items that arise every year. For instance, this year a blight has hit some of the trees in the parking lot on the south side of our property. In addition, the winter left some of the scrubs marking the property line between ourselves and our synagogue neighbors damaged. Your monthly "Cathedral Care" donations helps pay for removing the dying trees and replacing the shrubbery along the south boundary. In the past, these funds have paid for immediate repairs to the elevator, sound system and circuit breaker box when we had a failure there. The capital campaign is intended to fund major repairs to the Cathedral building to lower maintenance costs in the immediate future and preserve the integrity of the structure for the future. Ongoing maintenance will always be with us, but the cost of the repair and replacement of systems like the lighting, stained glass windows and the plaster and painting can only be handled through a special fundraising effort like the capital campaign.
When will work begin on the building and how long will it last?
The construction schedule is still being finalized, but the plan at this stage is to begin construction on September 1, 2010 and conclude by February 1, 2011. This is an aggressive schedule involving many adaptations of how, when and where we will carry on the normal activity of the Cathedral parish. Soon we will be announcing these changes, but they are being planned with two things in mind: (1) to cause the least amount of disruption to the worship we hold here and to assure that it is held in an atmosphere that preserves its reverence and (2) to allow for minimum work stoppages once the construction begins so that costs can be contained and the project can be completed on time. There will be a short period of closure of the Cathedral during the renovation project. Provisions will be made for Sunday Mass at another site close at hand. Further details about this adjustment will be announced in a few weeks.
I am ready to make a pledge. How can I do it if I haven’t been contacted yet?
We only have a limited number of volunteers to visit with parishioners requesting a pledge to the capital campaign. We want to contact every parishioner to ask for a gift, but you can help if you are ready with your decision. Three options are available to you:
- There are cards in the pews to give us your contact information. Please fill it out, place it in
the collection basket, and someone will contact you within a week about the campaign.
- Contact the parish office with your contact information, and a volunteer will contact you for your pledge.
- During the weekends of August 21-22 and 28-29, campaign committee volunteers will be available after all the Masses in the Cathedral Hall. You can meet with them then to discuss your pledge and receive a letter of intent for the campaign.
Why a five year commitment in this campaign?
Our goal of $2.7 million is a large sum of money, and spreading the burden of raising that amount over five years is more affordable for most parishioners than a one-time gift. If you look at your pledge in terms of a daily sacrifice, a $5,000 gift is less than $3 a day; a $10,000 gift is less than $6 a day; and a $20,000 is slightly less than $11 a day. If one were to pledge $100 a month, that is $1,200 a year and a $6,000 gift over the five-year pledge period.
Why can’t we just clean the carpet in the church and fix the doors rather than replace all of this?
Both the carpeting and the doors are beyond repair. We have had the carpeting cleaned annually until this past year, and the last time it was done, we were told that its shabby condition is beyond normal maintenance. The carpeting is nearly 15 years old, and it endures high traffic and many adverse weather conditions. The doors were repaired numerous times in the past four years, and no repair will sustain them in operating order any longer. Each repair episode cost over a thousand dollars with no lasting results. Again, we have reached a time when replacement of the doors is the only solution to their safe and secure operation.
Who is the architectural firm overseeing the planned renovations?
The firm is Celli-Flynn Brennan Architects and Planners from Pittsburgh. They were the firm who oversaw the renovations of Saint Paul Cathedral in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. They have extensive experience in church renovation, construction and engineering projects.
Is my pledge legally binding?
No, it is a good faith promise. If a person loses a job, has unforeseen financial obligations or the donor dies, there is no legal obligation to complete the pledge. There would only be an obligation upon an estate if the donor includes such a condition in his or her Last Will and Testament.
How did we arrive at the $2.7M figure for the campaign?
Last winter, we performed a feasibility study testing the case for our needs at the Cathedral. A representative group of parishioners were interviewed with a list of our needs, and they were asked to rank them in a priority and to offer their opinion on what is an attainable goal for a capital campaign here. The needs listed in our parish case were all supported by this study. The highest priority fell to the electrical system and lighting along with repairing the stained glass windows. No item fell below 50% of medium support. The replacement of the organ ranked fourth in the overall priorities. In reviewing the whole case, the pastoral and financial councils finally recommended that the organ be placed on hold given its high cost and its specialized appeal. Although no one argued that the replacement of the organ was not needed, a hard choice had to be made to address the most pressing needs through this campaign. The hope is to obtain a foundation grant to cover a major portion of the organ’s cost.
Why are the interior appointments of the Cathedral being redesigned?
The diocese consulted with design and architectural firms who reviewed the present interior of the church. They suggested that some changes be made to enhance the architectural beauty of the building more in keeping with its status as a cathedral. The last design renovation of this building was in the early 1970’s. The presently planned changes will enhance the liturgical appointments in the building in keeping with its original design. The moving of the cathedra (the Bishop’s chair) to the apse was determined to be the best solution for its placement, given that this church was never designed as a cathedral but was originally built as a parish church. The suspension of the redesigned crucifix over the altar will allow this space to remind all of us that we are called to be Christ centered in our lives. The Cathedral parish’s financial contribution to all the design elements is only 5% of our total diocesan target. All 85 parishes in this diocese are contributing to the cost of the architectural enhancements from which we are benefitting here at the Cathedral.
What will be different about the lights and the electrical system in the Cathedral?
The present electrical system is original to the building of the church in 1928. We have wiring and circuit breakers without separate switches that are far below standards for today. The proposed renovations will upgrade these to a level of safety and efficiency that we need. In addition, we have no ground level access to the present lighting fixtures. Although they were originally designed to be lowered to change bulbs and for servicing, the plastic components in the present light fixtures used to lower and raise them were shown to wear rapidly, causing a safety hazard for anyone under a fixture. Consequently, the manufacturer ordered that they be permanently secured allowing only lift or ladder access to service them. The new lights will have an approved mechanism for lowering and raising them allowing our normal maintenance personnel to service them. Although they will resemble the present fixtures, they will be greatly more efficient and placed to enhance the interior architecture of the building. In addition, an emergency lighting provision will be built into the system in case of a power outage.
What is our present debt and how will the Capital Campaign address it?
The current balance on our debt to The Catholic Institute of the diocese is $480,000. We pay $70,000 annually from our operating budget in debt service to this loan. If we are able to reach our total goal of $2.7M in the Capital Campaign, we are slated to pay down $300,000 of the debt balance from the revenue generated by this campaign. This will significantly ease the pressure on our operating budget, and allow us both to plan some pastoral initiatives for the parish and to start depreciating our maintenance on the Cathedral.
Why Donate?
Please click here for reasons why you should donate to help the future of our Diocese and our parish.