Churches seek creative ways to fund building projects

Karen Mahony reported special to your Catholic Herald with a timely reminder it was not upon fund drives that He will build His Church.

At times, parishes are advised to scale back their plans, or to build in affordable phases, rather than taking on too much debt, Feiereisen explained.

"Too many parishes are taking on too much debt and finding themselves in two, three or more debt reduction campaigns which are very difficult to do," she said. "They can then launch phase-two campaigns to finish the rest of the building project, which is much more palatable to parishioners than pure debt reduction."

The buzz at the barber shop was that St. Al's was obsessed with money, and that was before the 2001 building project. If what's reported above about avoiding repeated debt reduction campaigns is conventional wisdom, it escaped the notice of parish leadership. We're now in debt reduction campaign II with debt reduction campaigns III and IV contemplated.