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February 5, 2023From Fr. John Golas,
I have important news about the merger of the Catholic parishes in Enfield. I met recently with Attorney Karen Casey of Cooney, Scully, and Dowling to sign the papers petitioning the Secretary of State of Connecticut to merge St. Martha Parish and St. Raymond Parish into St. Jeanne Jugan Parish. This will create one Parish corporation for Enfield. Our parish is already established in Church law.
With the merger, there will be the need for new trustees, and a new finance council. Our existing parish council will also need to be restructured to include all four Churches. I have asked Susan McMurray and John Lynch to serve as the trustees of the parish. I want to thank those who served in this role for the Churches in the past. I am grateful for Sue and John to take on this responsibility. The new finance council will continue to be chaired by Bill Cotter. He is very familiar with the parish finances and the Archdiocesan guidelines and requirements. I have asked Alva Torre, Charlie Palomba, Clem Dumont, Tom Tubman, Joan Ferris, and Mike Booth to serve on the finance council. I appreciate their willingness to serve on this council. I am grateful for the service of the finance councils of the Churches in the past. As priest, I value this support.
The parish council will need to be restructured with the writing of new bylaws. This is a process that takes time. In the meantime, I will appoint members of St. Martha Church and St. Raymond Churches on an interim basis to serve on the St. Jeanne Jugan Parish Council until a new council can be organized. The existing St. Raymond Finance Council and Parish Council will continue to function as a sub -committee of the parish with its sole responsibility to supervise the final disposition of St. Adalbert Church and its sacred items. This sub-committee will make recommendations to me and the parish and finance councils about the way to proceed. Deacon Paul Robert is the chair of this sub-committee. I appreciate and value the work of the parish council, past and present. I am blessed to have Fr. Mathew, Deacons Vince, Paul, Mike and a very capable staff to help out. James Marco will be ordained to the diaconate this June from the parish. I have already requested his assignment to our parish. I will continue to communicate any important developments and please continue to pray for St. Jeanne Jugan Parish.
God bless you all,
Fr. John
