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Catholic News Herald

Serving Christ and Connecting Catholics in Western North Carolina
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Salisbury parish ‘Leaving an Inheritance’

SALISBURY — Parishioners of Sacred Heart Church are pulling together to eliminate parish debt by participating in the “Leaving an Inheritance” capital campaign.

The three-year debt reduction campaign goal, which launched Sept. 1, totals $2.5 million. All funds received will go towards the parish’s debt balance of $3.5 million.

Sacred Heart Parish has experienced great growth over the past 180 years, when a handful of Catholics came to Salisbury in the 1830s. In 2009, the parish relocated from downtown Salisbury to a new 14,500-square-foot church located off Jake Alexander Boulevard northwest of downtown. A school and a Catholic cemetery are also located at the 40-acre campus on Lumen Christi Lane. The parish has grown to 1,200 registered families, approximately half of whom are Hispanic.

“It’s beautiful that the parish is growing and that we had to move in the first place (in 2009),” said Father John Eckert, pastor. “We’re blessed to have what we do have. We want to build up our parish to leave an inheritance of faith.”

The parish already has campaign pledges from 30 percent of the families.

“The debt reduction campaign was no surprise to most parishioners, as they were aware from the beginning of this process that several debt reduction campaigns were going to be required,” said Tom Weber, campaign co-chairman.

The cost of the entire campus development was $9.8 million, and parishioners have already paid off two-thirds of that in previous campaigns.

To date, Weber said, the parish has almost $1.5 million in pledges toward the $2.5 million goal.

Ray Paradowski, co-chairman, is grateful for the efforts of Hispanic parishioners to help eliminate the parish debt. “They organized an International Food Festival recently, turning over $9,500 directly to the campaign,” he said. “Also, they are conducting a second collection at each Mass.”

Father Eckert noted that parishioners are seeing the fruits of their prayers and efforts to leave an inheritance to future generations in an increase in vocations from the parish.

The “Leaving an Inheritance” capital campaign will run through August 2021.

Sacred Heart and Immaculate Conception in Hendersonville are the two parish capital campaigns being launched as parishes are completing the “Forward in Faith, Hope, and Love” campaign.
According to Jim Kelley, diocesan development director, parishes are planning for capital campaigns in 2019 and 2020. He and Anthony Morlando, diocesan director of properties and risk management, have already met with leaders at 15 parishes to start the planning process. Parishes that want to begin similar discussions should contact Kelley at 704-370-3301 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

—SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter