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Endowment from closed parish serves Fremont community |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS, Chronicle Writer
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Thursday, 01 May 2008 |
FREMONT—Members of Fremont St. Casimir Parish were determined to leave a lasting legacy in the community when their parish closed in July 2005.
With approval from Bishop Leonard P. Blair, they created the St. Casimir Endowment from parish assets to serve the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the Catholic community of the greater Fremont area.
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A memorial at Calvary St. Joseph Cemetery pays tribute to the former St. Casimir Parish. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Good) |
Jeff Good, chairman of the endowment board, expects more than $23,000 in grants and scholarships to be awarded this June.
Last year six Catholic institutions and organizations received more than $21,000 when the endowment awarded its first grants. Recipients included three Fremont Catholic schools, Fremont St. Joseph Parish, a local Catholic Charities program and the Guadalupe Society.
“It’s been a positive for the community,” says Mr. Good, a member of Fremont St. Ann. “It’s really serving a greater good.”
Mr. Good had belonged to St. Casimir for about three decades when the Diocese of Toledo announced its closure as part of a parish realignment process.
“Once we got the word back that the parish was going to close, we had a lot of internal meetings with the parish to figure out what we do next,” he relates.
“There was a lot of people that were hurt and frustrated with the whole process and everything else,” says Mr. Good. “But in the end, in retrospect, I think because we came together, there was a lot of healing that took place within our parish community, to help people move on.”
Along with creating an endowment, the congregation paid tribute to St. Casimir Parish by building a memorial at Calvary St. Joseph Cemetery in Fremont. The altar monument was dedicated May 26, 2006.
Mr. Good can remember working on the design at a parish council meeting.
“We began to sketch things out on a napkin and in a matter of an hour, we had it designed,” he says. “The rendering that is out there today is pretty close to what ended up on the napkin.”
The memorial includes a black granite altar with “St. Casimir Parish” engraved on the front. The church cornerstone forms the base of the altar.
The cornerstone contained a time capsule from when the church was built, so parishioners added a second time capsule with information about the recent history of the parish.
Behind the altar is a black granite wall decorated with images of St. Casimir and the church, and the names of priests who served the parish. Two plaques from the church that commemorate parishioners who gave their lives in World War II and the Vietnam War hang on the other side.
Paving bricks engraved with names of former parishioners line the surrounding walkway, and Mr. Good says the cemetery is adding a memorial garden around the space.
St. Casimir parishioners who have become active in other local parishes continue to oversee the endowment fund, which is affiliated with all three Catholic parishes in Fremont.
The board of trustees includes the pastor and two lay representatives from each Fremont parish. All lay representatives are former St. Casimir members.
Mr. Good says 90 percent of the interest on the endowment is used for grants and scholarships. The other 10 percent “goes back in to build the fund and keep it going forever.”
Scholarships and grants are available for religious vocations, continuing education for Catholic school faculty and projects that benefit the Catholic community in the Fremont area.
Last year one of the recipients, the St. Joseph Guadalupe Society, used the funding to organize a three-part mission directed by the Redemptorist Evangelization Team for Hispanics. A priest and two religious sisters visited more than 100 Hispanic homes in the area, reaching out to inactive parishioners, the sick, the poor and the unchurched. Groups also gathered for faith sharing, Bible study and Spanish Mass.
“The community was very receptive,” says Irma Celestino, president of the Guadalupe Society. “It was a worthwhile project.”
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