Dear Friends,
Our friendly scam operators are at it again! This time they have somehow gotten into the contact list on my cell phone and have been sending out texts in my name asking for help. Luckily, most of you have caught the ruse and have ignored it. They are still using email as well to pose as me and get you to go buy a gift card and then send the gift card number to them so that they can buy something on Amazon or with Visa. Hopefully, most of you have not gotten trapped by them in this attempt to defraud you and me. It is clearly criminal activity but I am not sure how the police will be able to track them. I have heard some very sad stories of people who have lost thousands of dollars trying to help a loved one who is not even aware of the scam going on. As we have posted in the past, I will never ask you to do that kind of favor for me. Please delete the request or report the incident to authorities. I hope it will all end soon.
Let me give you an update on the rectory and where I will soon be living. For those of you not aware, after the break-in and Swat team efforts to remove the intruder from the house, we had to dispose of carpets, ceiling tile, furniture, etc. Contractors and engineers who looked at the house recommended it be torn down rather than spending money on a building that was severely compromised. Long time members of the parish may recall that in 1992 a watermain began leaking across the street from the rectory which caused the rectory to begin to sink. It took over a year to find the cause and by that point the foundation of the oldest parts of the rectory were beyond repair. Records from the time of the watermain break indicate that the repair estimates from thirty years ago started at $650,000 which is why the parish leadership at the time decided to simply wait rather than restore the rectory. The underground problem did not go away over the years.
Parish leadership decided to look in the neighborhood for another place for the priests to live. The Archdiocese asked that in making our choice we look for a place where two priests or a priest and a seminarian could live. That request pretty much eliminated smaller homes or any home without two bathrooms. Of course, buying a home is quite pricey these days. However, with the insurance company’s contribution and a bit of parish savings, we were able to close this past week on a condo just a couple blocks north of the parish. It is located in the Dunsany Building which is across the street from Via Farina and the Blue Barn Theater. We did take out a loan for $350,000 which we will pay off, like you do on your home, over the years.
During the next couple of months, we will be working on coming up with a plan with several phases of what needs to be done with our physical plant at Cabrini. We would still like to convert the old swimming pool into a nice hall for parish events and funeral dinners. We need adequate restrooms and perhaps a family room as part of the church building. We need liturgical storage for items that are used with the liturgical seasons. We have to decide what to do with the space where the rectory building and breezeway presently sit.
I invite you to dream with me about the future of our parish. What could it look like? What are the most pressing needs? How do we preserve the best of the past and make the facilities work for our future needs? How much are you willing to be a part of making the dream a reality?
Peace,
Fr. Damian