December 28, 2018

Dear Friends,

I would like to update you on two important issues.

The first regards the Strategic Plan developed during Fr. John’s final year at St. Joe’s. Working with a
team of parishioners and Steve Ehart from the Office of Mission Strategy at the Archdiocese, Fr.
John oversaw the creation of a Plan for St. Joe’s, which sought to address current needs and sketch
out an action plan to respond ultimately to the Great Commission of Christ: Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations.

The Strategic Plan really is quite extensive, in my estimation. Lots of time and effort and thought
went into its formation. However, the timing of its completion, which coincided with Fr. John’s
reassignment, proved less than ideal. This complication was compounded somewhat with the delay
of Fr. Swamy’s arrival and the uncertainty about my ongoing involvement. This is likely why many
of you may not have heard about the Plan, or that it has been completed.

When my assignment at St. Joe’s was to be for only a few weeks, it seemed imprudent to jump into
the implementation phase. But after being asked to continue for awhile, I began to work with some
of the leaders from the parish to create a mechanism, if you will, which will facilitate the
implementation of the Plan. Basically, a few Commissions are being formed that correspond to
areas of parish life, such as Academic and Spiritual Life, Common Life, Building and Grounds, etc.
Items from the Strategic Plan are being grouped into these areas, and parishioners have been
nominated to serve in the Commissions, which is an honor, I believe, and will enrich their life and
the life of the parish at this important time in its history. If you receive a phone call inviting you to
consider serving in this way, please respond generously—your parish needs you! On January 24 this
large group of nominees will gather for a presentation I will offer about this approach, and then
break into their Commissions to begin the initial work.

The second issue regards the renovation of the School, OR the construction of a new facility to
meet the needs of the parish. Those involved in the strategic planning process identified this as a
crucial project, and from the short time I’ve been involved at St. Joe’s, it sounds like this project
has been a topic of discussion for quite some time.

We have prioritized this project because the Archdiocese has started an archdiocesan-wide capital
campaign, which will come to St. Joe’s next Fall. Two options exist for us. We can wait until the
Archdiocesan campaign concludes in 2024 to begin a campaign at St. Joe’s for our building project,
since a parish cannot conduct its own campaign while an archdiocesan campaign is underway. Or,
with the Archbishop’s approval, we can do what’s called a “Combined Campaign”. This approach
would combine a parish’s capital campaign needs with the archdiocesan campaign goal, which will
be reduced somewhat from the original goal. So for example, if the School renovation would cost
$500,000, and the reduced goal from the Archdiocese for St. Joe’s would be $50,000, then we
would conduct a campaign for $550,000, with the Archdiocese being paid first. The advantage of
this approach is that it allows us to address our building needs now, instead of five years down the
road, and it allows us to utilize the company hired by the Archdiocese for its campaign, as well as
their marketing materials, which we can customize.
Now, the deadline to request a combined campaign has already passed. However, because of our
extenuating circumstances, we have been given until May to submit our request. Thus, the
prioritization mentioned above.

I have already begun to work with Steve Kuhlmann, Doug Schmidt and Michael Ratcliff on this
project. We have solicited bids for renovating the School AND constructing a new facility, after
consulting with many of you who are involved in parish life, especially the education of our youth.

Once the bids have come in, we will present both options to the parish and utilize the campaign
company working for the Archdiocese to conduct a feasibility study to see which option has the
support of the parish.

I hope this update has been helpful. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to give me a
call.

Merry Christmas,

Fr. Brandon Farrar