Thursday, July 31, 1997

Editor, The Catholic Mirror
P.O.Box 10372
Des Moines, Iowa 50303

Dear Editor: Stuart parish unveils plans for new church building? The headline should have read; Des Moines Diocese unveils plans for new Stuart church.

I participated in the "needs assessment" conducted last August-96 and the results were that the parish felt the best use of their resources was to restore the All Saints Church building or build on the same site using as much as possible from the gutted building.

A presentation was made to the Executive Committee of the Diocesan Building Commission on September 26, 1996. The Building Committee said Mr. Joe Lang of Renaissance Design Group of Omaha was very thorough in his consideration of each of the possible uses of the original site.

However, a letter sent to Rev. Richard Bergman by Vicar General, Rev. Lawrence Beeson on October 15, 1996 stated that the Commission has not approved the construction of new church buildings on sites of less than ten, and if possible, fifteen acres.

It goes on further to inform the parish to look for sites of this size to build a new church building. Even the parish chairman, Eric Tiernan stated in the Omaha World Herald, January 25, 1997, "If the parish council had wanted to restore it", he said, "it would have been very hard to sell." "The diocese can approve or disaprove our decision," Tiernan said, "and its surely easier to let them approve it."

Spending $475,000 dollars on about 95 acres of land and building a new church outside the heart of the community is not what myself and other members of this parish consider to be the best use of our resources.

The Church exists to comfort and to bring people to Jesus Christ in heaven. Jesus Christ's command was clear: "Comfort my people." It does not seem that the people of Stuart are getting much comforting from the leaders of our Church. I wish this was not so.

Richard Doherty
Stuart, Iowa 50250
515-523-2921

cc: Des Moines Register,The Stuart Herald, KCCI-TV, WHO-TV,WOI-TV

See the letter sent to Rev. Richard Bergman by Vicar General, Rev. Lawrence Beeson that Richard Doherty refers to.

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