Pastor’s Column

CAMPS SACRED HEART & IMMACULATE HEART

I have signed the contract with Donner Mine Camp and obtained the certificate of coverage from Catholic Mutual for this summer’s camps. The dates are:

▪ Camp Sacred Heart, June 11 – 17
▪ Camp Immaculate Heart, June 17 – 23

The dates are listed below for future reference.

On a side note, Camp Sacred Heart has – albeit with some donations towards camp scholarships – historically been self-sufficient in terms of its budget. A few things are making that more difficult: first, inflation is making the cost of food and other goods more expensive; second, bringing the sisters in from Minneapolis is a significant expense in terms of their travel and stipend.

I am very happy to support the religious sisters who make a very large sacrifice to come more than halfway across the country and spend time with our young ladies. For the over- whelming majority of our girls, this is the only opportunity they might ever have for a real encounter with religious life.

The rising costs do present two options to me: on the one hand, I could raise tuition rates for the camps; on the other, I can subsidize the shortfall from the parish. I have no intention whatsoever to raise tuition in the immediate future, because I believe this would place an unsustainable burden on already struggling families. So for the present, I am content to go with the latter option, that is, subsidizing the expenses.

I am bringing this to your attention for a number of reasons. First, I always want to be very transparent about the finances of the parish. I am very confident that these expenses are serving the common good of the parish, which has a vested interest in promoting and supporting religious life, especially traditional religious life, and also bringing our young people into contact with that life. Second, it was brought to my attention that there are most certainly people that might like to contribute financially to the camps. Those that would like to do so may submit a check or envelope marked “Summer Camps”, “Camps Sacred & Immaculate Heart”, “Camp Sacred Heart”, etc. Any of those variations will be placed in a restricted account for use by the parish summer camps.

I thank any and all in advance for your generosity. I’m very much looking forward to the camps this summer and I am so thrilled that we finally have a camp in place for the young ladies that mirrors the successful week we have provided for the young men for so many years.