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St. John the Baptist Parish A Catholic Parish of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati |
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St. John the Baptist Parish A Catholic Parish of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati |
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Parish Annual Fund Drive Campaign to Reduce the Debt |
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Parish Financial Situation |
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Quick Links on this Page:
1. New Church & School Addition (History of the Debt)
2. Past Archdiocesan Assessment Owed
4. Details of the Debt (By the Numbers)
With over 1100 families registered in the parish in the early 1990s, leaders of St. John’s realized the need to expand. The parish had clearly outgrown its facilities as weekend Masses were being held in the Parish Center and the school had a waiting list for admission into some classes. To address the situation, the parish embarked on a journey to build a new church and school addition.
To fund the building project, the parish conducted two capital campaign fund drives, Renaissance I & Renaissance II, between 1993 and 1999. The two campaigns raised a total of $1.7 million. The church and school addition was completed in 1997 at a final cost of $4.3 million. The remaining $2.6 million needed to fund the project was borrowed from the Archdiocese—thus the debt was born.
In addition to the church and school building loan, the parish also owes $300,000 in unpaid Archdiocesan Assessment charges from previous years. The assessment is the Archdiocesan “tax” or “fee” charged on parish revenue to fund downtown offices and services. In order to pay more on the principal of the building loan in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the parish did not pay its annual assessment to the Archdiocese.
At the time, the Archdiocese was not charging interest on the unpaid assessment balances each year. That changed in 2006 when the Archdiocese began putting unpaid assessment balances into interest bearing notes. Not wanting to incur any further interest charges, the parish began budgeting to pay its annual assessment charges each year going forward. The unpaid $300,000 from previous years still remains part of the overall debt to the Archdiocese.
As of February 1, 2010, our total debt to the Archdiocese is $2,646,188. Our current payment plan calls for us to pay $5,000 every two weeks for a total of $130,000 per year. With permission from the Archdiocese, these funds are applied to the principal only. The Archdiocese does not charge interest on “unpaid accrued interest” owed to them. Therefore, only the principal is being paid. If we choose to make additional payments over the $130,000 each year, these funds would be applied 50% to the principal and 50% to the unpaid interest that has accrued over the years.
This payment plan was established in 2006 by the Parish Pastoral Council, in consultation with the Finance Commission. Members of the Pastoral Council and Finance Commission felt the parish could, and still can, afford this amount each year while at the same time cover the expenses associated with operating the parish and its many ministries. Under our current payment plan, the total $2.46 million debt is scheduled to be paid off in the year 2031.
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