Dear Friends:
It was almost exactly a year ago that the parish community of St. John's Church on E. 5th St.
celebrated the last mass of its 127 year history and bade farewell to its beloved campus. As
part of a restructuring process initiated by the Archdiocese in 2010 St. John's was closed and St.
Pascal's was designated to "receive" the people and property of that parish in a merger. The
consolidated parish is named St. Pascal Baylon. As part of our coming together we were
confronted with the responsibility of maintaining and eventually disposing of the St. John's
campus. Accordingly the structures there (church, school, and rectory) were listed for sale with
a commercial brokerage last summer. Since then the buildings have stood vacant, except for
the rectory which has housed tenants for security purposes. In the intervening months St.
Pascal's has been responsible for maintaining basic utility services, lawn care and snow
removal. Our own maintenance staff together with a number of dedicated volunteers have
worked very hard to clear the property of unneeded furnishings, secure and re-purpose sacred
objects and remove accumulated rubbish. All of this has been done with the knowledge and
approval of the Archdiocese.
Although we have been very good stewards of the St. John's site it has still been a sad process
for the former parishioners there who were attached to that community for a long time. Some
of those people have chosen to come to the conjoined St. Pascal's, and some have made other
decisions. I am grateful for the welcome that has been extended to those who made the move
here.
The purpose of this letter, however, is to let you know that as of Friday, June 20 the property
has been sold and is now occupied by new owners. Although the process was long and
involved, the final agreement came quite quickly, and I am very pleased with the result. The
new owner of the property is the Darul-Uloom Islamic Center, and I hope that they find a warm
welcome to the neighborhood and East Side community. I hope also that we will have
opportunity to get to know the members of that community better as we cooperate in ventures
of mutual interest. I have written before about the disposition of the furnishings of the church
building, which is now empty and has been "relegated" by the Archbishop for non-Christian
use. My understanding is that the Center plans to occupy the rectory as a residence and is still
discerning how best to make use of the school building.
This transaction will be of significant benefit for our St. Pascal's community. It will remove that
property from our oversight, which has been a significant matter of time and expense during
the past year. It will also have a large positive impact on our financial condition. Over the
course of the next few years we will be able to eliminate our accumulated debt owed to the
Archdiocese, which is presently in excess of $900,000. We will still have our very large bank
debt to be concerned with, but we are doing very well in keeping current with that payment
schedule and reducing the loan balance. Thank you!
I want to acknowledge the many people who have been very patient and hard working
throughout this process, most particularly Mike Lentz and Jim Temple of our parish staff. And
let us never lose sight of the memory of St. John's and all of the goodness that it brought to the
East Side for more than a century. It carries a proud legacy for which we are all indebted.
Fr. Mike Byron
Fr. must have read the "The Eponymous Flower" from June the 4th. And I quote:
"I am writing to let you know that we have a Purchase Agreement on the Church of St. John's in Dayton' Bluff. The buyer intends to use the church for an Islamic worship center and the house as residency for the minister. They have no intended use for the school at this time. "
Chuck
COMMENTS
June 22, 2014
Thanks. Now lets see if the Archdiocese will own up to what they did or if they let St. Pascal's take responsibility for the sale.
June 22, 2014
A question arises to me on the last sentence of Fr. Br Byron's note - "It carries a proud legacy for which we are all indebted."
What is he talking about legacy - It was much more than that - It's the passing along of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior through the Apostles.