Parish plans $3.5M project to meet community's needs
BY LARRY HLAVENKA JR.
Staff Writer

HOWELL - The Rev. Brendan Williams, pastor of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Veronica, Route 9 north, does not like the idea of having to ask his parishioners for money - especially $3.5 million.

But with a parish that has grown to more than 5,500 families and strained the facilities, Williams must make that request in order to better serve the community.

"The need is always the impetus for this kind of undertaking," Williams said. "Ministering to [parishioners] and finding space for them to worship, study and meet has been a big issue for us here."

In recent years, the parish has purchased a facility on Hulses Corner Road for meeting space.

Now, as part of a plan to expand its existing campus, the parish will construct a narthex at the front of the church which will include an access ramp, bathrooms and crying room for families with young children.

Williams said the narthex will also provide gathering space for parishioners before and after mass.

The parish will also build an adoration chapel - a place for prayer - nearly three times as large as its current facility.

The largest component of the planned upgrades is the construction of a 14,000-square-foot, three-story parish center which will create gathering space and office space. At present, the church offices operate out of the rectory (the priest's residence).

The parish center will stand to the east of the rectory, near the driveway leading into the property from Route 9. The adoration chapel will sit between the rectory and the parish center.

A fall 2007 groundbreaking is anticipated.

Williams said that in less than two months, nearly $2 million has been raised.

Having gone through a similar fundraising campaign in the early 1990s when the parish built a gymnasium and new classrooms and renovated the church, Williams said he is better prepared now, if still apprehensive.

"I'm very excited," he said, "although the idea of going out and asking for money has not been the easiest thing in the world for me."

Williams, 66, who came to the church in April 1979, said the community's involvement and commitment have been invaluable to the current project.

"We have services in kind, promises of [donated or at cost] services" he said, adding that more than $330,000 worth of steel will be donated to the construction, along with stairs and electrical fixtures.

Williams estimates the church will save $750,000 from donated services.

"That is the type of spirit of the old barn raising that the old communities would gather together to do something," he said. "That is also part of the spirit here of working together, giving people an opportunity to use their talents and their gifts for the glory of God."

Williams said there were no such donations made during the 1990s construction project, but this time around, he said, "I've gotten to know more people and I have many wonderful contacts in the parish and outside that have really helped us."

The parish has enlisted the services of Lynch Development Associates, a firm that assists Catholic communities in raising capital to address their fiscal, structural and spiritual needs. The firm encourages parishioners to contribute to the effort through a variety of means.

Although the construction project still needs approval from the Diocese of Trenton, Williams said he does not foresee any issues which would preclude the parish from getting the project under way next year.

"It's very exciting having the opportunity to do something and to leave behind us something very special that will be used for our own congregation right now and for eons to come, God willing," he said.