October 5-6, 2002 - Delivered at all Masses

Today I want to take this time to speak to you about a very important crossroad here at St. Perpetua – our campaign to Embrace the Vision… Build Our Future.” I’d like to tell you why this campaign is so significant, provide an update on what has taken place and ask for your assistance. We are very excited about what has already been accomplished, and we believe it is a promising sign of things to come!

When I first came to St. Perpetua’s in 1997, I wanted to find out something about the patron saint of the parish in which I was asked to minister. I love our Catholic heritage of the Communion of Saints and confidently believe that they guide us from their heavenly station. All I had known about St. Perpetua was that she was an early Christian martyr whose name and feast day on March 7th is always listed with St. Felicity. When I researched her life I discovered that Perpetua was a young educated noble woman from Carthage, North Africa – part of the Roman Empire. She was imprisoned in the year 203 A.D. for her Christian faith, along with her servant Felicity and some catechists and deacons.

While the lives of most of the early saints and martyrs are based primarily on legends, Perpetua’s story is different. While she was in a Roman prison, awaiting her martyrdom, she kept a diary, not a long journal, but a few pages describing the last days of her life and three fascinating dreams she had. A dream of purification in the form of cleansing water, of nourishment, where she was fed milk and cheese by a shepherd; and strengthening, in which she was rubbed down with oil like an athlete being readied for competition. Providentially, those are the same sacramental elements of Christian initiation – water representing baptism, oil for Confirmation, and food signifying the Eucharist. I want to call upon St. Perpetua to be with us as we embark on a Capital Campaign. Like our patroness, you too, have had three dreams. I’ve seen and heard about these three dreams since the day I arrived here, and I know that parish leaders who preceded me did too.

The first dream that I’ve heard you articulate is a dream of Education: sharing faith with our children. Based on the wonderful tradition of Catholic education at St. Perpetua School and the large number of parish children from public schools enrolled in our religious education programs, you have expressed a desire to improve the school facilities. In order for our school to continue to offer an excellent educational experience, several aspects of our facilities have to be upgraded and expanded – the library, the computer/technology room, the science/art room, the faculty room, meeting and instructional spaces as well as improvements in all the classrooms and the general appearance of the outdated building. Without these improvements, I fear that our school will not be able to offer the educational opportunities parents desire for their children and our enrolment will shrink. If that happens we run the risk of losing our school.

Our classrooms are also used for the religious education programs after school and in the evening, so any improvements to the school will necessarily enhance our CCD or religious education program. Vacating the current library room will open up a space that is large and useful. I would like to see the former library become a resource center and meeting room for our religious education program – a place where catechetical materials, books and audio-visual items can be stored, where parish catechists can be trained and gather for meetings and support, where parish junior and senior high students can study and socialize.

A second dream has haunted you for a long time. Some of you worked in years past to propose a new worship space, a church built on the field of dreams on the upper lot. With the most beautiful view in Lafayette overlooking the hills and valleys and a vista of Mt. Diablo, there has long been a desire to create a place for worship that would befit the rites of the church and the beauty and dignity of the Eucharist. A place with ample room for gathering before and after services. A place where the sacraments can be celebrated more fully and where children don’t have to strain to see what’s going on at Mass, where the music ministry would have enough space to carry out their role, where a baptismal font and its surrounding area would accommodate families more comfortably. Our current church building has served the community well for half a century. The environment and art committee dress it beautifully for our liturgical seasons. But we would be hard pressed to call the building itself an inspirational space. Our church should be a place we would be proud to show others, not a place we are embarrassed about because it is oppressively hot in the summer or because the floor and other building materials are aging beyond repair. The church, which is the house for God’s people, should receive the same care and attention that you give your own beautiful homes.

The third dream that I have heard you share is for a better place where the social and recreational life of the parish can happen. The building in which we worship was built in 1952. Like many parish churches of that era, it was intended to be a temporary location for worship and to one day become a multi-purpose social center which could house indoor sports activities, dances, banquets, performances and social functions that would enhance the ties of fun and friendship in the community. Our current hall next to the church looks much more attractive with its interior color scheme and the stage curtain that was added a couple years ago, but it still is inadequate for our needs. We can only sponsor small social events and dinners because the space is small and narrow. It was built without any provision for putting the tables and chairs away after an event, so they are exposed as storage whenever they’re not in use. We cannot hold a parish-wide dance, or a large dinner. If we had a bigger space, the opportunity for more social gatherings would be a source of attracting new members and foster greater participation in family, youth and adult events. Many of you have expressed your desire for a facility like most parishes have, where the social life of the community, as well as our worship, can be celebrated.

I am convinced about the importance and value of your dreams. A year ago you reaffirmed them in the feasibility study that was conducted. The strong majority of respondents said: “It’s time! Just do it! We’ll support a process to make these dreams come true.” Moreover, most of you who responded to the feasibility interview or questionnaire said that you would contribute financially to a campaign, and many of you said that you would be willing to work on the campaign as a volunteer.

For the past year a dedicated group of parishioners has served on a Steering Committee, working with Ratcliff Associates, to prepare a Master Plan giving shape to these dreams. Under the architectural firm’s guidance we held three Master Planning workshops to involve parishioners in this creative process. Throughout the process we have kept all of you informed by bulletin and pulpit announcements, by visual displays and by our parish website. There are no surprises or hidden agendas here. The Committee has done its best to provide a responsible and open process. They have offered me reasonable and intelligent advice on a vision for the future. We need to remind ourselves that other than the building of this space in 1952 and the school buildings in 1963, the parish has done no building except for occasional repair work, and even that was often long-deferred and overdue. Former parishioners who visit the area have said: “Gee, nothing has changed. It’s the same as when we moved twenty years ago.” Stability is a virtue; stagnation is not. Being a stable Catholic parish is admirable, but a stagnant parish is not something that any of you, myself included, wants to be.

I applaud the Steering Committee for their tireless efforts and thank them on your behalf for all their time and effort in overseeing the establishment of a master Plan and in bringing us to this initial stage. For this first goal we will add a second story addition to the back part of the school building, transform the current library into a Center for Religious Education and our faith Formation program, and raise money in order to obtain the necessary land use permits, architectural designs, and soils studies to lay the foundation for the next goal of our Master Plan, a new church. Our first goal in making this dream a reality is a two million dollar pledge campaign, with pledges being made over a three year period. It’s important for everyone to understand that this is not a ‘school project’. Our school parents have already raised a million dollars and have a million dollar loan from the diocese which they will repay over the time as the school brings in additional profits.

This is a parish-wide effort that will impact our religious education children as well as our school children and that will be a critical step in turning a corner and putting the parish at a point of strength to be able to proceed to the subsequent goals articulated in our Master Plan.

Now it’s time for you to do your part to make our dream come true. The Communications Subcommittee has selected as our Campaign theme: Embrace the Vision… Build Our Future. The simple logo is a pair of hands, gently and lovingly surrounding a cross superimposed with the letter P. That cross and letter represent all of us – the people of God who form the community of St. Perpetua. That cross and letter P represent our past – the thousands of members who are or ever have been a part of this wonderful faith community. That cross and letter P represents all who will come after us and the dreams that will come true for them – dreams of Education: sharing faith with our children; dreams of Worship and Service: praying and serving God together; dreams of Recreation: growing together in fun and friendship. When you leave church today you will see a three-dimensional model of the Master Plan that has been developed. Next week we will have colored renderings of the new and remodeled buildings that are being proposed. Enjoy looking at them and let your imagination and determination soar. We can make this happen!

In fact, we’ve already begun to do so. A few weeks ago, we listed the members of our Leadership Committee in our bulletin insert about the campaign. The group is being co-chaired by Dan Hogan, Donna Kozel, Renee Nelson and Grace Paolini. In addition to the Leadership Committee, we also have another group of parishioners working as team captains. So far, we have a committed workforce of over forty members of St. Perpetua family already helping in the campaign. During the campaign everyone within the community, both school families and parishioners, will be contacted to have a personal visit from a campaign volunteer. We are very thankful for their participation and we’re deeply appreciative of their commitment to the parish. It is this kind of active involvement that makes this parish such a dynamic worship family. I have already received several generous pledges and the response to the campaign has been very positive.

If we are to enjoy a successful campaign, we need the involvement of as many members of St. Perpetua community as possible. Our goal is to give everyone in our parish family the opportunity to participate by Thanksgiving.

When a campaign volunteer contacts you in the coming weeks and asks to visit with you and discuss your support for the campaign, please welcome him or her as my representative and a representative of the parish. Consider the meaning of St. Perpetua in your own life, and give prayerful consideration to your gift. I am not asking you to do anything that I have not done – I made my own personal gift to this campaign at our first Leadership Team meeting, and I am asking you to join me and a number of others who have already made their commitments.

Finally, I encourage you to pray for the success of our campaign. For the duration of the campaign we will close each Mass with a prayer, asking God to bless our efforts. How well we will be able to serve the current and future needs of our parish family depends on all of us at this time and on God’s guidance. Please leave today thinking about the ways your life has been nurtured and blessed at St. Perpetua, and how you can help to make certain that future generations may enjoy the same graces and benefits that have been yours.

Thank you for your attention.

Father John Kasper, OSFS