WAUKESHA 鈥 The former St. Joseph Church rectory, on East Avenue next to St. Joseph鈥檚 Parish, is in the process of being torn down. Andy Dejewski, director of facilities with Catholic Community of Waukesha, said it was used as a rectory a decade ago.
"It has been pretty much a vacant building. The Hispanic community was using the rooms for mostly storage," Dejewski said.
The building will be completely razed starting April 1 and turned into green space.
"They are going to fill the hole with top soil and level it out. It will be used for future uses but don鈥檛 know what that will be yet," he said.
Dejewski said it all depends on funding. They are working on updating the existing rectory at St. William Church. A younger priest is coming out of seminary and CCW wants to set it up for seminarians and priests to be together at St. William if they would like.
On March 7, the Catholic Community of Waukesha announced that it will be merging its four parishes: St. William at 440 N. Moreland Blvd., St. Mary at 225 S. Hartwell Ave., St. Joseph at 818 N. East Ave., and St. John Neumann at 2400 Highway 59.
Each church is currently its own parish with its own finance council, set of trustees, financial records, and more. The proposed merger will streamline the many administrative tasks of the Catholic Community of Waukesha. The merger would become official on July 1, 2025 and would result in a single parish with four separate worship sites 鈥 the existing St. William, St. Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John Neumann. Each church will remain operational and 鈥渧ery little will change鈥 from a pastoral standpoint.
Dejewski said there will be updates with The Love One Another Campaign for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
鈥淭he Love One Another Campaign is to prepare for the next generation of Catholics in our 10 counties of southeastern Wisconsin. Its goal is to raise pledges totaling $150 million for needs in our parishes, helping the poor, and providing new and strengthened Catholic ministries across the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,鈥 the campaign website said.
All 188 parishes are taking part in four parish 鈥渨aves鈥 from summer 2021 to mid-2023. Parishes will conduct their own Love One Another Campaign efforts, supported by a campaign team.
The website lists the different parish campaigns.
St. Joesph鈥檚 Church in Waukesha wants to raise $294,157 for building repairs which includes $94,157 for tuckpointing and stonework and $200,000 for plaster repair and painting.
St. William wants to raise $185,000 in funding for integrated technology which includes updating Wi-Fi, audio and video technology. They need $74,754 for playground updates. The church also needs $690,000 for building maintenance including replacing the roofs over the gym, sacristy and office.
Other projects include updating flooring, lighting, upgrade the school HVAC, repair roofs and repaint exteriors of the rectory and Vercelli House. In the rectory, they will add an additional bathroom and replace the carpeting.
St. Mary鈥檚 Church wants to raise $190,000 for integrated technology which involves augmenting accessibility and security. They seek to upgrade technology infrastructure, Wi-Fi, portable media, and community room.
鈥淲e also plan to upgrade our current audio to make Mass more accessible for all parishioners. Installing a fob system will allow us to make our church available for personal prayer and create a safer environment by controlling access to our buildings,鈥 the website said.
They want to raise $553,638 for replacing classroom steam unit ventilators, the rectory roof, gym rooftop units, library air handling units, all control valves, actuators, and control system. The church also needs $60,000 to renovate the choir area and updating exterior and interior signage.
St. John Neumann Church wants to raise $353,303 for parking lot improvement.
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