6-Month Pastor’s Report: January 1 – June 30, 2025

Summer started about a month ago. I cannot believe the first half of the year is over. According to our little tradition, I would like to offer to you a basic report on some ministries, projects and activities at St. Martin of Tours which took place these pastfew months. I am convinced it was another good and meaningful time for our parish. We must be grateful to God and to you dear parishioners for making these six months of year successful and rewarding. I see a lot of progress and growth in our parish community. 

We are grateful for the election of the new Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, and Archbishop Jeffery Grob, who was born and grew up in Wisconsin. These are the right spiritual leaders for this time in the Church given to us by God. I believe they will significantly influence the spirit of our country and Archdiocese and significantly impact our pastoral work. We continue to pray for their well-being and leadership. 

Our first purpose as a religious community is to pray and worship. We had a meaningful and beautiful celebration of the Paschal Triduum and Easter. I was encouraged by your involvement, help, and large participation. I have never seen more people in our church than during Easter Masses this year. In this special way, I am grateful to our liturgy and worship committee, together with the lectors, sacristans, servers, Eucharistic ministers, and ushers for planning, organizing, and making our celebration possible and meaningful. I am also glad that we have more opportunities and occasions to pray and organize social gatherings at St. Martin of Tours. We are committed to continue these events and celebrations that strengthen us as one community of brothers and sisters in Christ. We are committed to organizing more events and opportunities to pray for our youth and young adults in the near future. 

Strategic Plan 

We completed our 5-year Vision and Mission statement more than one year ago and targeting completion of a more detailed implementation plan for the entire community of St. Martin of Tours. Our parish Staff, both Councils (Pastoral and Finance) and MAC (Mission Advancement Committee) have been working hard setting priorities and key 5-year goals for our parish community. We hope to complete the Strategic Plan for St. Martin of Tours Parish this year. 

ParishStaq 

I am excited about the new dynamics and changes in our parish these last few months. There are many new developments and growth of our community at St. Martin of Tours. One of the new initiatives, which was introduced recently, is the church management software, ParishStaq. With this program we are moving our communication, management, and interaction with people and various ministries on another level. One of the reasons to introduce the new system is to simplify the process of online donations. Hopefully it will encourage people to sign online, attract new donors, and eventually increasedonations. We need to increase our donations and weekly collection to be able to maintain our facilities and for new ministries, and I use this opportunity to ask you to consider doing so. However, the main and most important reason to introduce this project of ParishStaq is to attract new and young families to our parish with the updated look and ease of use as well as to allow volunteers to sign up for ministries and to help with events. We need them along with new resources and donations to grow our parish strong.

Helpful Numbers 

At this moment we are a community of 995 Active Families (2,483 Active members). We welcomed 13 new families who joined our parish in the first part of the year.. We had 15 baptisms and 6 weddings; 13 children received First Communion and first reconciliation.Ten students received Confirmation. We had 17 funerals. We provided catechism classes to 117 youth and children in the English and Vietnamese communities. We continue to host two Catholic homeschool groups with 125 children that use our facilities weekly. In short, we are alive and there are signs of growth. 

Some Maintenance and new Projects Updates 

The first phase of the stained-glass window project will be completed at the end of 2025. The second phase, the Rose Window, will be designed and completed next year. We received $53,088 in donations which covers about 92% of the cost of the first phase of the project. 

We had a couple larger expenses relating to the school building which are boiler servicing and inspection, and the twenty-year-old sprinkler headtesting. Maintenance in the church includes the bell tower project andfilling the cracks in the parking lot. Capital projects currently in progress include our LED sign, and replacement of some of the windows in the school building. Signage in our cemetery was repalced, thanks to the cemetery committee! Funds from the Cemetery ProjectFund’s faffle were used to cover some of the costs of this project. The flowers and landscaping were done by our Building and Grounds committee. I am very grateful to them and those who maintain and water them. 

Our Financial Situation 

We are stable financially and we are not carrying debt. We ended the fiscal year with a few thousand in deficit, and we foresee $28 deficit of the operating budget in this year. 

Our weekly collections remain flat when compared to the same 6-month period last year. Jan-Jun in 2025 total $355,100 and Jan-Jun in 2024 total $354,400. 

Our parish fellowship dinners are a great way to connect with others in our community. While the intent is not a fundraiser, we received offerings of $4,000 that benefit our parish life. 

Total income received from the Archdiocese for the Love One Another campaign (LOA) totaled $58,529. This compares to $73,403 for the same period last year. LOA money is used for larger projects and maintenance. 

We distributed $15,000 from our needy fund to assist organizations and individuals in our community. 

The Main Activities for the Second Part of the Year: 

• July 13, 2025, Scally Brothers Concert – over 230 people attended 

• High School Summer Service Projects beginning in July; 

• High School Summer Small Group beginning in July; 

• August 21-24, Rummage Sale; 

• August 30 – September 1, Regular Labor Day Activities; 

• Monthly Parish Dinners begin in September; 

• Creating a team and launching OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) Program in Fall; 

• October 2 - Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Champion Shrine & St. Joseph Shrine;

• November 15 - St. Martin of Tours Feast and Fall Harvest Dinner Auction; 

I am grateful to many committees and groups for organizing these above events. 

Lastly, thank you for your prayers and support. I always appreciate your comments, suggestions and encouraging words but also criticism and complaints. Please do not hesitate to give me your feedback and thoughts not just about this report but also about our parish life. Our effort as parish Staff and administration makes only sense with your willingness to collaborate and your care. I am blessed and proud to be your pastor. 



Fr. Andrzej