From the October 15, 2023 bulletin

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Holy Rosary,

I’m writing to share the start of an exciting project and to ask for your prayers and advice.

Since beginning as your pastor, I have learned a great deal about Holy Rosary Parish’s rich history, and my admiration and appreciation for this community has only grown. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to read the parish’s history book, “A Treasure of Promises Kept”, which includes some incredible and inspiring stories. The Holy Spirit has clearly been at work in this community.

Our mission to radiate the joy of the Gospel in Portland is needed now, more than ever. To state the obvious, Portland is changing, and will continue to change. We’ve watched this city, like others around the country, struggle to adjust to new social dynamics, not least of which is a decline in religious practice and belief in God. I’d like to propose that we can do something to help, and to do so, we need to consider what our parish might look like over the coming decades.

We have a unique challenge and a unique opportunity. As some of you know, the Dominicans own nearly five (5) city blocks around Holy Rosary Church (the red areas of the map). This includes land owned under the title of the Church, the Rosary Center, and the Western Dominican Province.

As you might imagine, this land comes with management costs and potential liabilities, but also considerable unrealized opportunity to strengthen our parish, the Rosary Center, and the Province. As such, leaders at these Dominican entities have begun to ask: what does God want us to do with this land? How can we help each other?

Driving these questions are several serious challenges facing the Dominican entities involved:

• Holy Rosary Parish buildings need significant maintenance, and we have dreams to strengthen our parish and ministry to the city. This may require new resources and buildings. We also have a budget deficit that will be hard to close. How do we protect our oasis of faith?

• The Rosary Center has an aging building with significant deferred maintenance, and they need new kinds of spaces for their ministry to grow. What should they do?

• The Western Dominican Province needs to stabilize property revenue streams to help fund Holy Rosary parish, the care and education of the friars (with record vocations!), and other Dominican apostolates in serious need. How can they help everyone be successful?

As such, the Dominicans have asked us to come together and form the Property Steering Committee (PSC), which is a collaborative advisory body with lay and friar representatives from the Parish, the Priory, the Rosary Center, and the Province. They’ve been tasked with building a collaborative Master Campus Plan that unites and supports the operational needs of all the entities involved. But to build a proper plan, we need your prayers and advice.

I’m aware that the parish’s history with buildings and land has been difficult over the previous decades, and that there were times in the past where we did not communicate transparently, or lost sight of our goals, or failed to properly consult the community. For those mistakes, and the hurt they caused, I’m truly sorry. I believe the best way to move past those errors is to chart a new course with your help, sharing openly our hopes and dreams, and better understanding yours.

In that spirit, I’d like to ask you to help us with a broad effort to discern Holy Rosary’s place in the future of this city, specifically, how best to create a future “parish campus” where the Catholic faith can be inculcated, as well as radiate out into the city for generations to come.

Opportunities to Get Involved and How We’re Collecting Advice We’ve created a few ways for us to learn about what God may have put on your heart to share:

1. Online Parish Survey: in a large parish with hundreds of families, one of the best ways to ensure everyone has a chance to voice their opinion is through a proper survey. It will remain open for at least a month to give you time to complete it. Please access the survey at: opwest.org/pdxsurvey

2. Parish Stakeholder Meetings: I’ve been working closely with the Property Steering Committee to understand the various stakeholder groups within the parish. Specifically, the pastoral and finance councils are your parish representatives who advocate for your needs. We’re engaging them directly to understand any concerns and hopes of the community.

3. Parish Town Hall Meeting: towards the end of the year (Date TBD), we’ll be holding a Town Hall style meeting to share the results of initial feedback, offer insights into what we’re learning, hear more questions and ideas from you, and talk about ‘next steps’ .

What Happens Next? Over the coming months, we’ll be working hard to listen and gather feedback from as many different sources as possible. The PSC will analyze this feedback and look for themes, critical issues, and creative ideas to incorporate into a Master Campus Plan proposal. This proposal must incorporate the hopes and dreams of our parish, but also the Rosary Center and the Province. It’s a unique, exciting, and transformative opportunity for us all.

We hope that a proposal can be completed by early 2024, and subsequently accepted by the leaders of the parish, the priory, the Rosary Center, and the Province. This proposal would then be our guiding document as we consult with professionals and others on how best to realize our vision for the parish, the Rosary Center, and the Province. At that point, we’ll begin to better understand timelines, costs, and other questions that I’m sure are on all our minds.

If you have specific questions about the work of the PSC or this process, I invite you to reach out to Mark Fisher (markfisher@holyrosarypdx.org). I’m also available to speak with you.

Please take time to complete the survey at opwest.org/pdxsurvey and please keep this effort in your prayers. I keep all of you close in prayer every day.

Sincerely in Christ and St. Dominic,

Very Rev. Peter Do, O.P.

Pastor and Prior