Message from the Pastoral Planning Committee on Results of the Parish Vote

We would like to thank everyone who submitted a ballot. We also appreciate the many comments and letters we received which give us great insight into the thoughts of parishioners regarding the future of our parishes and help us to understand why people voted the way they did. The results are detailed here.

Parish	Yes	No	Total	Abstained or no signature
St. Theresa	131 (69%)	58	189	7
St. Francis	78 (80%)	20	98	1
Both Parishes	209 (73%)	78	287	8

There was more than a two-thirds majority of families in each parish who voted yes and 73% of the total were yes votes. The PPC is pleased with the number of families who returned ballots with more than 75% of our active families voting. We were also encouraged by the margin, as we feel it gives us the mandate to move forward with the proposal.

Where do we go from here? First we will petition Bishop McManus to merge the two parishes. This process will be undertaken slowly and thoughtfully with the help of the Bishop and his staff and with the input of the various parish committees and the parish staff. We expect to be working over the summer months on the transition plan for the merger.

Over the summer we will also begin preliminary planning for a new facility and the fund-raising campaign. We will soon be choosing a building site and selecting and engaging an architectural firm to perform a feasibility study and conceptual design. We expect to involve not only the standing parish committees and parish staff in the planning; all parishioners who would like to be involved will have an opportunity to share ideas at parish meetings during the conceptual design planning. We are looking at a busy summer!

We know that many of you voted “No” on the proposal and your reasons were varied. We hope that you will continue to be part of our community and will move forward with us by supporting the changes, if not financially, then by your presence, by sharing your talent and with your prayers.

We all look forward to the prospect of building a stronger and more vibrant Catholic community for Bolton, Harvard and surrounding towns.

We thank you all for your support of the planning process over the last two years.

Fr. Dennis, Suzanne Dutkewych, Mary Keville, Denny Mahoney, Pam Philbin, Tom Starr, and Rick Walsh