Parish Pastoral and Finance Council Minutes
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
In Attendance:
Father Showreddy, Father Eustace, Ja-Deen Johnson, Theresa Roberts, Maria Hartman, Jeremy Schoettle, Amberlie O’Toole, Ryan Schnarr, Steve Looney, Ben Laker
The meeting was called to order.
Father opened the meeting with scripture and prayer
A motion was made to approve September council minutes after an amendment. Amberlie noted an amendment was needed to individuals in attendance at the last meeting. Amberlie corrected minutes. Minutes were seconded and were approved.
Pastor’s Report:
Father Showreddy said Patty Cain and Tanya Pongracz are assigning two ill parishioners a week for our priests to visit. The priests are offering anointing and confession. The healing service after the first Friday Mass is going well.
Confirmation had switched from 8th grade to 9th grade this year. St. Barnabas families have expressed concern. Father is wondering what to do for current students and opened the discussion to council members.
Maria and Theresa shared the history of why the switch from 8th grade to freshman year.
Some kids may not be aware of the confirmation prep being held since kids have moved onto high schools. 8th graders are under our care at St. Barnabas so it is easier to offer the confirmation prep during religion class and stay in communication with candidates. Typically the 8th grade teachers would start prep in the second semester so we aren’t behind with current 8th grade class. After careful thought and discussion, the decision was made to combine 8th and 9th graders this year for confirmation.
Father Showreddy would like to start a Children’s Mass on the 2nd Sunday of each month at the 9 am Mass - The children will be doing the singing, reading, serving, etc. Father Showreddy said he would check with the choir and lectors about how this would affect their schedules. He would like to start in Advent.
Every 3rd Sunday of the month Father wants to start a small prayer for any birthdays and anniversaries after communion at all Masses. He mentioned asking those celebrating to approach the altar for a blessing.
We are bringing back Children’s Liturgy of the Word (CLOW) starting in Advent. Tina Schnarr and Bridgett Mason are working on starting this up.
Father Eustace shared that every Saturday the Chin Community has a rosary at 6:30 PM in the church. On the First Saturday of the month, they hold benediction.
Principal’s Report:
Ryan Schnarr shared that the school just held a Walkathon. Cumulatively, 500 miles were walked. $3000 was raised for vocations (going to Bishop Brute Seminary)
In November, the school is having a canned food drive. They will be collecting all month.
The 2nd quarter stem day and Roncalli High School placement test are coming up.
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PTO is planning stations for grandparents day. They are hoping to have a prayer service as part of it. Daily Mass for that day, Friday November 14th is pushed to 10:30 AM because of this.
8th grade will be having their Thanksgiving feast.
In honor of Veteran’s day, the school has been asking for names of veterans so the students can write letters to them.
The parish has started pushing out school highlights and photos once a week through flocknotes. People have enjoyed seeing what is happening at the school.
Mr. Sitzman, Ryan Schnarr, and Clint Meinerding have been certified for archery. The school received a grant. They will offer archery after school and in PE class as well. It will be for 5-8th grade.
Debate club has started up with a student initiating the club.
Financial Report:
Ja-Deen shared that expenses are high because of work on the roof (50 percent deposit was required) School materials were also purchased. We are still good financially. Tithing is $20,000 above budget. We are ahead of budget by $90,000. An additional $50,000 of expenses are because of the new roof. In November, the remaining payment for the roof will be paid.
October is looking good. We should get our first half of choice dollars (a little over $1 million this month) Salaries are more because of subs needed for music ministry. A new director of music, Sam Jones, has been hired.
Operations:
Safety grant - Ja-Deen shared that all window film has been finished. The doors between the sanctuary and the narthex are done.
The next project is the exterior doors on the west side of the gym need repaired and doors for the hallway of administration.
Ja-Deen stated she is trying to submit for an Archdiocesan grant for the roof.
Faith Formation Update:
Maria shared that there were 8 in attendance at their last commission meeting. NCYC (National Catholic Youth Conference) is coming up in November. We have 32 teens registered for NCYC and 7 adults. There is a Trivia night fundraiser this weekend, for those 18 years and up.
Trivia night will have 5050, raffle baskets.
Donation wall coming up in the narthex soon too to help fund NCYC attendees. Expenses for teens attending NCYC is high. Each attendee’s cost is $400 a ticket, $70 per day for food, and a hotel room is $740 for 3 nights. The total for each teen is $655.
Per Maria, ERE is going well. Bridgett is visiting ERE classes and also visiting school religion classes to make sure they are as similar as possible.
Youth group is going well and slowly growing. Confirmation prep. started September 14th. Tina would like 2 more adult volunteers for this. They are using PURPOSE program from LifeTeen.
Bible studies have been a success with roughly 30 attendees in each of the two studies.
OCIA has had 11 -13 people per session. There were 20 in the last session. People are engaging and asking for a separate bible study.
CLOW - Faith Formation asked about bringing it back. Staff is on board with it.
They discussed Outreach for faith formation. One possibility is bringing back the ministry fair. Tanya will be putting together a group for this.
Father Showreddy closed the meeting by leading us in prayer.
The next Parish Council Meeting will be November 25th at 6:30 pm in the Hope Center.
