Last Monday I had the pleasure of “spelunking” in our parish archives room, looking for interesting artifacts to display for the 100th anniversary of the dedication of our church building.
Unfortunately, our archives have not been reviewed or organized since Joe St. Hilaire wrote his parish history almost 40 years ago, so the artifacts I was able to find were haphazard, and there will definitely be some gaps in our historical records come October 10th. Nonetheless, the two hours or so I was able to give to this project were quite enjoyable, not least because I was joined by Kelsey Harrington, fellow Millennial, career-long employee of Catholic institutions, and current director of the Agape migrant ministry program who has her office in our building right next to the archive room.
Among the many things that we found were:
- A fundraising letter from 1934, signed by Msgr. Stafford, encouraging parishioners to contribute to paying down a very large parish debt. ($50,000, which is about $1 million in 2021 dollars.) They were raffling off a new Oldsmobile, donated by a local car dealership!
- Another fundraising letter from 1945, with a zinger of a closing line, something to the effect of “You make significant sacrifices for your government. Will you not also make sacrifices for your church?”
- The constitutions of the Assumption Altar Society (circa the 1950s).
- A report from the late 1970s or early 1980s, showing that a full 25% of the school’s annual revenue came from “Bingo” (with 40% coming from parish subsidy and 35% from tuition).
- A visioning document from the mid-80s, with such visioning questions as “What if we were able to pay our parish employees a competitive wage?” and “What if our youth group was so engaging that it attracted youth from neighboring churches?”
As Kelsey described the experience, “Hilarious, and equal parts comforting and frustrating.” Both of us have been around the Church long enough to recognize that these struggles of the past continue to be the struggles of the present. Apparently, humanity and the Church are amazingly consistent. Not a lot has changed in 100 years.
Except maybe Bingo. There used to be a lot more Bingo.
P.S. Some of the things we found will be on display after the weekend Masses on October 9th and 10th, and the archbishop will be here celebrating at the 8:00 am and 10:00 am Masses in honor of the anniversary of the dedication of our church.
Fr. Moore 