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In an effort to keep everyone informed as to what is happening in our Parish, Parish Council has reintroduced the popular “Did You Know” series begun several years ago. Especially in this time of pandemic when we cannot gather our entire Parish family within the church, it is hard to keep up with the changes happening within our Parish and our Diocese.

We will keep you informed here on our website, through occasional presentations at Mass and the Liturgy of the Word and with some Zoom Q & A sessions. We will post updates on this page. More information about the  Building Project

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Latest update on January 25/2025

On January 18 we held our second town hall meeting regarding the proposal for our parish buildings. Slide 1 110 of our parishioners came to listen and participate. We had collated all the previous questions and had planned to respond to these. Happily, at this meeting, there had been a decision the previous evening by the Diocese to investigate another option within the Diocesan and Homes by Avi partnership. The new proposal would determine if developing only the land on which the parking lot and hall sits is a feasible option. We had previously gained a delay for coming to a decision on the building proposal. We are no longer at a yes/no decision but are in a position of true discernment around several options. This development is impacting the next steps and our work on how the decision will be made. More details need to be developed and shared about the new option. We will be working on a project matrix that describes the benefits and risks of each option. Slide 2 Current activities within our parish include sharing information as we receive it. We are currently updating the website in light of the new option and modified process. We continue to receive questions and find ways to respond. To date the questions and comments have been very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to do this. Our next step is to conduct conversations with parishioners about their values and their community. We will be following a Conversation in the Spirit process developed by the Diocese to support the Parish Renewal initiative. As well, we will be preparing for the next town hall meeting in early March where further details of all the options will be presented. We already have the hall alone design based on the needs assessment of 2019. At this time, we are waiting for Homes by Avi to let us know when the architectural renderings will be available. They are planning for 3 different renderings for each option. Slide 3 We are holding our focus group conversations in early February. These discussions will be rooted in honoring our senior parishioners to better understand the values they held and the decisions they made to create the wonderful parish of St Pius X which we call our spiritual home. As well we have data from the Synodal information gathering of 2020, data from the survey of June of 2024 and the strength of our present community. We will meet with 2 selected groups, one for the more senior members of our parish and one for the young adults (18-35). After that, we will hold three more sessions that are open to everyone. As noted on the slide, they will be held in the evening on February 4 and 6 and one in the afternoon on February 8. All will be held in the hall. We will have focused questions about the value and role that our St Pius X parish has had in supporting your faith journey. The information gathered will be reported back to you. We are hoping that these conversations will help us to generate a draft mission for our parish community to guide us through the next several months and years. Please sign up for these conversation sessions. Sign up forms are at the back of the church. If you prefer, you can call the office to sign up. If there is higher interest than our planned meetings can accommodate, we will create more. Slide 4 In summary then, we will continue to receive and respond to question, concerns and comments about the process and the presented options. We have and will continue to share information as we receive it. Please consider participating in the conversations to be held in early February. Each of you contributes to this parish community that we call our spiritual home. We want to hear from everyone if possible. We are looking forward to seeing the ideas that are presented in early March. As we all know change is difficult. We are grateful for the extra time that has been given to us and hope we are using it wisely to ensure that all of you are part of our upcoming decision. Our response to the Diocese is due in March of 2025. Thank you for your attention. As always, I will be around to answer questions about this presentation.

Did You Know?

Parish Synod Sessions

Our Diocese has been on a journey over the past 7 years. As part of that journey, you all had the opportunity to participate in the Synodal activity in the spring of 2021. We are now moving into the next phase of the pastoral renewal work. Simultaneously much work is being done as a result of the Synod in October of 2023 in Rome. This work will be revisited in October of 2024. All of the summary documents from the synodal consultation emphasize the importance of ongoing discussions at the parish level. Pope Francis has stated very strongly his view that the parish is a critical place for self-renewal and constant adaptation to be the Church Living. In the midst of the home of her sons and daughters. We at St Pius X will be offering several opportunities for our parish to discuss these activities which are happening in our broader church. At these sessions, we will review the Synodal process to date to learn about all the efforts made to truly engage with the broader church. We will also review the strong theological base for the synodal process. We are very interested in each of your understandings of how this initiative has impacted you, and how you think we should move forward within St. Pius X to renew our faith community. ​ We are offering initially 3 sessions to have this discussion. Our sessions will be on June 7 and 8. June 7 – 1 to 3 pm in the church hall June 7 – 7 to 9 pm in the church hall June 8 – 1 to 3 pm in the church hall Hopefully this will provide a reasonable time for each of you. We hope you will be able to find time to contribute to the pastoral renewal within our parish and to better understand your role within the broader church community.

Did You Know?

November 23, 2024

Town Hall meeting with Bishop McGrattan On November 23, 2024 parishioners met with Bishop McGrattan and the Parish Council representatives to discuss the proposal from Avi Homes to develop a new Church and Hall. Parishioners who may want to share comments, concerns, and questions with members of our Parish Council can get in touch with Glen Jones or June Bergman at the following email addresses: glen@stpiusx.ca june@stpiusx.ca In February 2019 we conducted a parish survey with regards to building a new Hall. During the mid 1950’s our current hall was constructed. Since then, it has served in many roles including: church, rectory, dance hall, conference center, Inn from the Cold, reception hall for weddings and funerals, and gathering place for coffee and parties. Materials have changed, building codes have changed and parish needs have continued to evolve. With this in mind, Parish Council requested a comprehensive study of the existing hall by the Building and Maintenance Committee (BMC) to determine how best to respond to these many changes. There were a number of proposals investigated by the Building and Maintenance Committee. Many of these were very expensive and did not address all of the concerns highlighted during the reviews. Based on the results of the BMC report, Parish Council recommended to Fr. Bill Corcoran that a new hall should be constructed within the next 5‐7 years, as that is the projected life of the current hall. Our Finance Committee creates our annual budget and tracks our financial history. They reported that St Pius X Parish continues to be financially stable, meeting all financial obligations. Our weekly collections have been increasing, further adding to our financial stability and this is directly through your generosity. Our Building and Maintenance Report estimates a new hall will cost approximately $1.2 million. Based on our history and current trends, we can financially carry this debt. We are required first to collect 50% of the estimated amount to be able to proceed with this project. We are committed to developing a well thought out project plan and have already begun the necessary steps. We have had discussions with the Diocese of Calgary and recently requested in writing their formal approval of the plan. Once the Diocesan approval is received, we will seek membership for a fundraising committee, engage an architect continue to dialogue with you about your new hall require your involvement at many levels. We hope to be able to share the Diocese’s response with you soon and continue with a new hall to meet the needs of the parish community for many years to come.

Did You Know?

December 11, 2021

Parish Building Repair Update Some of you may have noticed over the years, the sidewalk and parking lot sinking as well as water collecting at the end of the sidewalk on the alley side of the church (at the corner nearest the hall). You may even have noticed the construction fencing and excavation in this area last fall (2020), as well as this fall (2021). The Building & Maintenance Committee (BMC) had noted this too and that the buckling sidewalk was damaging the brick facing of the church, so they undertook the project to correct this. When the sidewalk was excavated in 2020, a large sinkhole was found underneath and the soil was very water saturated around the church foundation. Further investigation was not possible at that time, due to the water saturation of the ground and the source of the water was not obvious. Looking for the water source required multiple camera inspections of pipes, opening a wall in the office, and plugging various other pipes. We again excavated in 2021 and determined that: a roof drain over the office was broken and not connected to the storm drains, the former electrical supply conduit to the hall had been broken and patched allowing water into the boiler room, resulting in the church basement flooding in June 2019 and subsequent requirement for a new electrical service to the Hall the storm drain manholes surrounding the church drained not only to the city drains, but also directly into the ground As a result of this high-tech investigation, the BMC determined that the church foundation had not been compromised by ground water over the years, however to prevent future damage, remediation of the above problems needed to be addressed. The BMC then undertook the project of replacing storm water lines, repairing manholes, permanently capping electrical conduits into the boiler room with cement and connecting roof drains to new lines.  This project has cost $33,500 (2020-2021), while the flood clean-up and new electrical supply to the Hall (2019) cost $9,300. Still to be done: parking lot grading for proper drainage, sidewalk replacement, and parking lot paving repairs, which will be done next year after compacted soil has fully settled.

Did You Know?

April 24, 2021

Diocese: That Bishop McGrattan is making a number of changes to how things work within the Calgary Diocese. These changes impact across many aspects of Diocesan leadership. The main areas of change are reviewed in this slide. Some of these changes you have seen a couple of weeks ago. They are reviewed here for you.  Finance: Our Diocese will now operate within certain financial principles. As has always been the case, we are not allowed to run a deficit budget. What is new is that some budget categories now have a targeted percentage based on our usual donations. For example, we must maintain our costs for personnel to between 32% and 35% of budgeted donations. These numbers are derived from other charitable organizations. Another area of budgetary targets is maintenance where the maximum is 30% of budgeted donations. Thanks to our strong building and maintenance committee and the volunteers, we are usually well within this target.  In the Calgary Diocese, the Diocese functions as our banker. We must borrow from the Diocesan central fund if we require funds for development. Loans are assessed at 1% and interest on cash reserves at 0.2% through this central fund.  From March 2020 until December 2020, the Diocese waived collection of the 14.5% levy on all parish collections. This levy goes to support the operation of the Pastoral Centre. The levy has been reinstated as of January 2021. That Diocese wide, collections have reduced by about 30%. Our donations here at St Pius X have been tracking the same, about 30% decreased from previous years.  With the 30% reduction of the total, the amount that is available for spending in certain budget categories has generally reduced by 30%.  These changes reduce our flexibility in choosing how our finances are spent internally within the parish.   Human Resources: The parish currently has reduced staff. We no longer have a sacramental assistant position. As well we have reduced secretarial time. The current cost for staff at the reduced level meets the diocesan maximum of 32-35 % of collections.  The Diocese has assumed responsibility for all human resources in the Diocese. This will result in a more protected and supported benefit package for employees. It also means that we must apply to the diocese if we wish to hire any additional employees.    In this application we must make a case for the need for the new hire position along with the expected role that this new employee will fill. Further, we must demonstrate that the additional remuneration for any new positions does not cause our costs for paid employees to exceed the 32% to 35% of donations threshold set by the Diocese. At the present time, all new hires must be approved by the Bishop.  Your parish council is currently reviewing the various roles and tasks required in the parish along with the financial restraints to see if there is need for enhanced parish support. We are particularly trying to ensure that all the parishioner supports remain strong. Central Purchasing and Procurement: The Diocese is in the early stages of developing a centralized process for bulk buying and establishing trusted suppliers for a variety of services and goods.  Parish Council Activities: As noted, 2 weeks ago, in response to these changes, your parish council has met with the Bishop, William McGrattan, Rev Wilbert Chin Jon and Alejandro Henao. As mentioned previously, we are currently reviewing the operation of the parish with all of the various tasks that need to be accomplished for support of the parishioners. We recognize the very strong role played by you our volunteers in the community of St Pius X. Supporting this role in the future is central to us. Next Week: This is lot of information and we will continue the discussion on Wednesday, April 28 with zoom meetings at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. Parish council members will be available to clarify and respond to questions. Ideas to move forward are welcome. We are also planning a broad based survey or town hall for parishioners in the fall once the world opens up again. But for now, please let us know what you think. If you cannot come to our virtual coffee sessions, please contact the office with your questions and we will respond.  Thanks so much to all of you for your continued support of St Pius X parish. As you learn about these changes and how we will deal with them,  we believe that we all can grow together to be a stronger parish.

Did You Know?

Together in Action (TIA) is the Diocese of Calgary annual campaign to support key ministries, partner organization and agencies. Embracing God’s plan allows us to enrich lives and support those in need. This year's "Together in Action" campaign aims to raise $2 million for crucial causes such as caring for retired priests, hospital chaplaincy, pastoral care, diocesan ministries, and the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund. Together we enrich lives and support those in need, embodying the spirit of Philippians 4:19, which reminds us that God will meet all our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. The 2024 TIA supports the following ministries: ​

Worship Gatherings

Weekday Masses:

Wed, Thurs, Fri @ 9:00 am

Sunday Liturgy:

Saturday @ 5 pm

Sunday @ 9 & 11 am

Address

2424 24 Avenue NW
Calgary, AB
T2M 2A2

Near Crowchild Trail & 24th Ave NW

Office Hours

9:00 am – 1:30 pm
Monday – Friday

Closed Statutory Holidays

St.Piusx Catholic Parish, Calgary. 

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