The Vision
Imagining the New Era
Why St. Monica Catholic Community is embarking on this ambitious project: To transform the world. We take our parish mission – to form loving disciples who will transform the world – seriously. We imagine a future where the world depends even more on our outreach. The needs increase, but our facilities have reached (and have well exceeded) their useful life. They must be renewed to continue to effectively bring Christ to a world in need.
Our Community has grown significantly. Since 1993, our parish membership (registered households) has grown by nearly 300 percent, to nearly 9,000. Our outreach ministries (requiring budgets) have grown from just a few in the late 1980s to more than 100 today. More want to be created, but we simply do not have the room to administer to them. And, as everyone knows, parking is a serious problem, not only for Masses on Sunday and at noon on weekdays, but also on school nights and for school-day funerals, when student safety is compromised. Our Parish Center and parking lots strain under these burdens now, and, without significant improvement, will only turn people away in the near future.
School accreditation boards recommend we develop our school facilities. While our outstanding schools continue to excel and pass academic accreditations with flying colors, the accreditation boards strongly recommend we develop a plan for modernizing our facilities. This plan addresses those recommendations.
Our buildings were built for different times. Our current Parish Center opened in the early 1960s as a convent; its walls and spaces are inflexible for open administration and expansion. Our Elementary School opened in 1930, and our High School buildings opened in 1936 (West) and 1956 (East). They must be modernized.