July 16, 2026
Dear Members and Friends of the Cathedral,
Later today I’ll be on my way to Auckland, New Zealand, where I’ll be giving talks to the priests of all six dioceses, to the general Catholic public in five of them, and to students at the national seminary on my last day. My hosts have promised me some time off, too. I will be back in the office on August 13, but I’ll stay in touch with you between now and then.
Father Dave Holloway will hear confessions and preside this Saturday afternoon. Fr. Scott Brossart SOLT will preside Sunday morning, and Fr. Riley will celebrate Sunday night.
Congratulations to Conception Abbey’s new leader, Abbot Paul Sheller, OSB. For many years, he and I were the only two Father Pauls working in the diocese. Father Paul Sappington has joined us. The new abbot is a fine man, a good friend, and I couldn’t be happier that he has accepted this responsibility. He appreciates your prayers.
Those interested in joining the church meet Sunday mornings at 10. If you know someone who would like more information, please invite them to fill out our form.
Adult faith formation continues on Monday night at 6:30, discussing the Bible Timeline.
Application forms for positions on our staff are here. We are seeking an events coordinator and a director of stewardship and development.
The finance council met last week to review our numbers over the past fiscal year and set our budget for the new one. Our income last year matched the budget—thank you!, but our expenses ran over. Several things helped us, including a special appeal during Advent Sunday Masses and the generosity of guests visiting here for the celebration of confirmation. We anticipated more rentals of Father Donnelly Hall, and we still think those will increase. We’ve raised the costs pertaining to weddings at the cathedral. Contributions to Morning Glory Ministries were down this year, but it remains an arm of our ministry that draws many generous donors. Our salary costs were down because we went without some positions during staffing changes. Some of our staff are getting a raise to put them in line with diocesan salary guidelines. We have changed health care providers, and benefit costs happily stayed flat. Our facilities costs are over budget, partly because we have increased security protection. Our IT continually needs expensive improvements. A lot of our increased expense is interest payments on our loan, which is causing us to fall back on paying some bills. We love the Bishop Hogan Center, but we don’t love the debt.
Many of you have contributed to our renovation fund, which provided the new HVAC and roof. New LED lights are on order. You will still see some enhancements, but we definitely need help to pay down our debts. If you’d like to contribute, go here.
In Christ,
Fr. Paul Turner, Pastor This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
P. S. This weekend we’ll hear another of Jesus’ parables about sowing seed. This one concerns an enemy who sows weeds in the night. Here’s a 1622 painting of it by Domenico Fetti, now hanging in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain.
