Understandably, our parishioners and friends are concerned about the costs involved with the rebuilding of the church. Especially during tough economic times, every dollar that is spent needs a good justification. And all of us here at the office of St. Mary understand and share the concerns over financing. Fr. Red has always kept us in the black, and we have every expectation that he will continue to do so through this effort.
We want to share a few thoughts with our parishioners about the costs and finances of the rebuilding effort. We understand peoples' concern, and we want to be as open and upfront about the state of the rebuilding of the church as we can be. After all, the church is home to all of us. Unfortunately, the information that we do not know surpasses that which we know. So we are trying to share what we have, but it may not be as satisfying as all would wish.
First, we want to reassure everyone that the renovation and restoration funds that have been collected through our recent fundraising drive continue to be earmarked for that purpose only. Those funds are not being used to repair the church from the fire. The fire repair funds will come through the insurance company. This is the purpose of insurance, and we are well-covered. For this reason, we are not soliciting donations for church repair at this time. Moneys that have been donated for this purpose will be used to cover other costs that may arise as repair work continues, but the insurance money will cover the repair of our church to the state in which it was before the fire. Therefore, after the insurance has covered the repair of the church, we will be using the previously-collected funds to continue our paint and restoration work.
Secondly, we do not have an estimate for the total cost of repair to the church. No dollar figure has even been suggested by our insurance adjuster to anyone in the parish staff. In fact, the long-term construction effort has not even been put out for bid yet, and the extent of the damage has not been determined by the engineer assigned to the church. So any and all dollar amounts that are rumored to be the cost for repair are complete speculations at this point. Numbers seem to be concrete facts that people like to share; however, no such numbers have been produced by the insurance people or the parish staff. If and when we hear an estimate for the repair of the church, we will share it.
Thirdly, no one from the insurance company or from the diocese has given us any reason to think that the costs of rebuilding are going to be too high to rebuild. We have received nothing but positive encouragement from all financial parties. Of course, we'd all prefer the security of having our church rebuilt already, but we have every legitimate hope and expectation that the funding of the church rebuilding is a fait accompli.
Everyone in the parish office and on the council understands the desire of parishioners to know what is going on with the rebuilding of the church. We wish there were more concrete facts to give about the finances of the rebuilding effort, but we must have patience throughout this process in order to get final numbers. We will continue to entrust the rebuilding of our church to Our Lady.