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New Building Project

OSHA Letter of Commendation - July 2009

John Paul II Family Learning Center Groundbreaking & Luncheon Please join us on March 22, for this special event. The ceremony will follow the 11:30 AM mass. The luncheon, hosted and sponsored by our Hispanic Community, will be from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. Tickets are $5 per person/$20 (max) per family. We look forward to seeing you there!

Spread the good word, by wearing a t-shirt to support Our Faith, Our Family, Our Future. T-shirts available for purchase. Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus to benefit the Expansion Project. Buy yours today!

Pope John Paul II
Family Life Center

Video
Please view this video showing the current over-crowding at St. Bernadette's parish.

Case Statement for
John Paul II Family Life Center

"...A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for human beings. You, the peolpe, must gift it this soul."
Pope John Paul II

CASE STATEMENT

“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” - - Pope John Paul II

OUR COMMUNITY

From its humble beginnings in 1987 with 25 families, St. Bernadette Catholic Church has grown at a rapid, steady pace. The Church, which serves the Fuquay-Varina/Holly Springs/Harnett County areas currently serves as the spiritual home for almost 2,000 Catholic families. With the rapid growth of the region, it is not unreasonable to project that our Parish can expect to grow to over 2,500 families within the next few years.

This tremendous growth is reflected in the growth of the Catholic Community in the Diocese of Raleigh where the Catholic Population has doubled since 1990 and grown to some 190,000 people. Catholics now comprise 4.6% of the population in an area where Catholics only accounted for less than 1% two generations ago.

We owe a tremendous debt to our founding members of the Parish and our administrators who worked, planned, sacrificed and prayed to build our current facility on land donated by the late Myrtle Hopson. In 2000, when the current Church was dedicated, many wondered how we would fill the existing multi-purpose building and the 598-seat church.

However, the local population grew at a more rapid rate than anyone projected. Our buildings are literally bursting at the seams; visit our Parish any night of the week and you will find nearly every square foot filled beyond capacity. Our elementary Faith Formation classes are held three times per week in “classrooms” devised by setting up movable partitions.

The other nights of the week are filled with our Junior Youth Group, Youth Group and RCIA programs. Our growing music ministry practices several times per week in the sanctuary where there is no privacy and little storage for music and instruments. The kitchen facility is inadequate for social events. Medical and dental clinics for the less privileged would be much more effective with adequate facilities. Our priest and staff offices have literally been carved out of hallways and common areas. Young families with restless children sometimes have difficulty attending services, as room for families with small children is very limited. The Family Life Center would provide them a nurturing place to accommodate the needs of their restless child - allowing the parents to attend Mass without distracting other parishioners.

We have looked at modular structures; the Town will not allow us to add any more units. The movable partitions make for noisy, distracting classroom study. The Atrium program that introduces our pre-school aged children to the basics of our faith has grown to be extremely popular and these classes are full. Our Junior Youth Group and Teen Youth Group juggle available space during their meetings.

Most of us have been blessed to grow up and be properly schooled in the faith of the Catholic Church. St. Bernadette’s relies on a group of talented volunteers to teach our growing population of young Catholic men and women. These volunteers and students rely on the rest of our Parish Family to provide adequate facilities for our future.

What can we, as the Parish Family do? First, we must pray and ask for God’s guidance in spreading His Word. Then we must come together and consider the needs of all of our family. All members of our Parish were invited to participate in the planning process and to share ideas and be heard through a survey distributed to all parishioners. Church ministries were invited to share their needs. The Raleigh Diocese provided input from other parishes that have experienced similar growing pains.

The Holy Spirit has provided the faithful; we must provide the facilities necessary to proclaim the word of our Lord, Jesus Christ to any and all that will listen

BRINGING OUR VISION TO REALITY

After much prayer and hard work, the Expansion Committee has drafted the following plan:

        
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• A Family Life Center to be built as a multi-purpose facility. This new facility will provide:
• Meeting and classrooms in size and quantity to serve our Faith Formation Program and other faith-based and social programs
• A large, well-equipped kitchen to be used for social events
• Wireless computer access throughout
• A nursery
• A small library
• Office space
• A large open “multi-purpose room” to be used as a combination social hall and, when needed, worship space for Mass.
• A gathering space that will unite all the buildings, both new and old.

It is clear that our existing sanctuary is not adequate to serve our Parish during some of the weekly Masses and on special occasions. Our current social hall is also inadequate to serve the social and educational needs of our Parish Family. After consulting with several architects and engineers, there is no cost-effective way to expand our existing sanctuary to meet our needs for celebration of the Eucharist during these extraordinarily crowded times. We can only expect this overcrowding to worsen as more families move into our area.

In order to avoid the need to build two new facilities (which would be an extreme financial hardship), we believe it makes more sense to focus on a Family Life Center that is flexible enough to meet our existing and future needs on a spiritual, social, and educational level. This transitional approach will allow us to grow as a Parish Family until there are enough members to financially support the cost of a new sanctuary and the re-design of the existing sanctuary. The Last Supper serves as the basis for our current celebration of the Eucharist; Jesus Christ had his Apostles under one roof for this celebration. The Family Life Center will allow our entire Parish Family to worship together while also providing the space necessary for the educational and social ministries of our Parish Family.

How can we best use our existing facilities? What is the best way to meet our requirements within the new financial guidelines of the Diocese? What plan would provide the best facilities serving the most people of our Parish Family? How can we meet the needs of our existing groups and support the growth of our ministries?

Most of all, what can we recommend that will build a stronger foundation for Our Faith, Our Family and Our Future? We pray you will find that the St. Bernadette Family Life Center will provide that foundation.

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