I mentioned that the local parish, St. Cecilia, is planning to expand their worship space. This is a rendering of the new church. Right now you basically have the middle section, between the towers and under the gabled roof. The new one will have wings on the side, tripling the seating capacity for Mass. During the winter when the numbers are down, one wing can be closed off and heated to use as a chapel that will be fine for the smaller crowds. They will actually wind up saving on heating costs.Anyway, the anticipated cost for all this is $12,000,000 (twelve million dollars), so they have done a variety of projects to raise that cash. They are not even going to break ground until they have the money in hand -- a wise policy on their part. All last year they sold $50.00 tickets for a half million dollar raffle. Total prizes came to about a half million, the first prize being $250,000. The drawing was in March and the winner was someone who is related to someone who works with Tom over at the railroad. I haven't seen a report on the final amount raised, but apparently they cleared several million dollars. Gives you an idea of how many people come through there during tourist season.
And how many people are willing to put down fifty bucks in the hopes of getting a quarter million back.
1 comment:
In Turin there are maybe 500 churches, and you can find a mass everywhere from 6.5 AM to 9 pm.
But the Archbishop wanted a new big church; cost ( with pastoral center):47 million dollars.
The Italian State after an Agreement with the Catholic Church, turn every year a part of collected taxes ( paid by Catholics of course, but also Protestants, Jewishes, agnostics, Buddhists, atheists) to the Catholic church.
But I’ d like to have a raffle.
Cris
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