Sunday, September 26, 2021

announce that the St. Austin Parish/School Development deal is finally and fully agreed to and signed. What a relief! This is a very big deal. It is an event that will impact the parish and the school for the next century and beyond. It is an accomplishment with far-reaching and impressive consequences. We are all on the threshold (precipice?) of something Very Big!

I believe that there are very few parishes and schools that could have pulled this off. We were able to get this far, and accomplish this truly historic feat, only because of the dedication, talent, generosity and hard work of so many of you. That our parish and school were able to mobilize, work together, persevere, and finally bring this to completion is a testament to the generosity and talent and imagination of this parish/school community.

So many hours have gone into meetings, planning, negotiations, packing, moving, selling, and more meetings, meetings, meetings. Our thanks and gratitude go out to all those who have served on the Development Committee, who worked on the packing, move and set up at our temporary school location at San José Parish, worked on the school beautification days, who worked so hard moving, pricing and selling at our big parish sale, who helped with the move of the parish equipment and offices to our new location at 500 MLK Blvd. or to long-term storage, who helped with the move to the new rectory, and who prayed and encouraged us and helped in innumerable other ways. Many THANKS to you ALL! Only the great amount of talent and dedication and enormous GENEROSITY of so many parishioners made thishappen, and it is a great tribute to the spirit and ethos of this parish/school community!

Together we have pulled this off. Many in the Diocese and in the neighborhood wondered if we really could do this, but we did! It was much harder and more complicated and involved than any of us understood when we first began.

The pilgrimage is not over. Even when, three years from now, we have worked through all the issues of construction, and have moved into our new home for our parish offices, parish ministries, new school and new rectory, then in a real sense the work of evangelization, which this is all about, will really finally begin!

We have reached a very significant milestone on our journey. We have reason to rejoice and celebrate. But we are not finished. Our pilgrimage continues. But we have proved that we can overcome very big challenges. We are ready for the next exciting leg of our journey.

God bless!