Finished projects fruit of decades-old seeds

From The Superior Catholic Herald...
 

This summer, two diocesan churches are celebrating the completion of major building projects, bringing to fruition plans developed decades earlier.

St. Anne’s, Boulder Junction

When plans for the St. Anne Church were initially presented by parishioners in 1958, the vision called for a gathering space of approximately 2,000 feet in addition to the worship space. For multiple reasons, the full concept was not implemented.

Fr. Joseph Pasala, who became the parochial administrator in 2015, inherited the unfinished plans and took the initiative to create a nine-member building committee. That committee first met in October 2017.

“The old plans were dusted off, the parish surveys were reviewed, and the questions asked again,” Therese Safford shared in an April write-up about the project. “If we build it, will they come?
“New ideas germinated. Enthusiasm started to take hold. There was a lot of debate about the cost, size of the project, and what the parish really needed.”

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St. Anthony, Cumberland

The thought of building a new church in Cumberland was “nothing new,” according to Parish Life Coordinator Dcn. Steve Linton. In a message he wrote at www.actinfaith.net/st-anthony-building-project, he noted it had been talked about for decades. Since Dcn. Linton moved to the area in 2002, he was aware that the reason the parish center had been built so far back from the road was because of the future new church plans already considered.

Since Dcn. Linton’s assuming the parish leadership role in August 2014, he was aware of the brick church’s disrepair, “and the only responsible solution was to move forward toward the building of a new church.”

At the time he thought the best approach was the make some repairs to the existing structure to allow more time for the parish’s investments to grow. When Bishop Powers was contacted for permission for the repairs, with support from both the finance committee and pastoral councils, they received response that they should look again at the feasibility of the new church project rather than splitting funds into two projects.

Read the rest of this news story on The Superior Catholic Herald (official publication of the Diocese of Superior) website here...