Many of you know that HR church has had some recent problems with its ceiling near the choir loft. In looking at this issue, some other problems have started to be identified within the building and on the exterior of the building. This weekend, Deacon Jim made an announcement that all masses would be need to be held out of the church for the next 4 - 8 weeks, while a comprehensive safety inspection is done. Here is the schedule for the next 4 - 8 weeks:

• Monday and Wednesday (daily) Mass will be held at 9 am in the chapel in the Parish Office building (formerly the convent building)
• Friday's School Masses will be held in the school auditorium
• The Saturday Vigil at 5 pm and Sunday Noon (12 pm) Masses will be held in the school auditorium

We will be setting up chairs for the Friday mass at the school and try to leave them up for Saturday, unless there is a reason we need to take them down for the rest of Friday. The Parish is 100% responsible for all set up and take down of anything related to the weekend Masses. Also, there will not be any additional church (non-school) activities on our campus during school (including Extended Care) hours Monday - Friday. We will be keeping classroom, office, and kitchen doors locked on the weekends and are requesting that cubbies be kept clean so that items are not left out and unsupervised.

This time period is set forth for a comprehensive safety inspection, the scope of which was determined by a team of people from not only our Chancery (Property and Construction, Insurance, and other departments), but also other contractors and architects from our parish community and Bishop Mueggenborg (on behalf of Archbishop Sartain) and the Superintendent for Catholic Schools (Kristin Dixon). At this point, what has been shown is that there are multiple areas of the church that have been compromised, allowing water intrusion. These areas are the north end of the church (the main entrance), the nw corner near the choir loft, and the entire west side of the church (along Delin Street), as well as significant issues with the Bell Tower. While we do not know the extent of the damage caused by the water intrusion, we do not want to endanger anyone and therefore we have determined that no one will return to the church until it has been completely and thoroughly inspected for safety. Once the results of the inspection have been returned, the group of people from the parish and the Chancery will meet once again to determine whether it is safe to return to the church, as well as next steps.

In case you are wondering about the school, since this building is actually 10 years older than the church, we are in much better shape. First of all, our brick is better quality with a smooth surface that does not allow for the water to infiltrate as it has done in the church. Also, because our building structure is less complex, it has been easier to maintain over the years and is much more simple to access all areas. Finally, we have done a lot of upgrades and repairs over the years, including the most recent $1.5 million capital campaign and the more recent removal of the entire 2nd floor hallway ceiling. The church, sadly, has had many years of deferred maintenance for a variety of reasons, so it has a lot more problems internally and externally than the school building. Our next big ticket items are tuck pointing and sealing the brick (hopefully next summer) and a new roof in the next 2 - 3 years. The folks from Property and Construction and Insurance were by the school again on Friday and were impressed at all of the work that has been done on our building in the last few years, as well as the major renovations of our playground.

This has been a challenging situation for the parish community. There have been so many challenges and so many losses over the past few years at Holy Rosary Church. We at Holy Rosary Bilingual Academy are pleased to be able to help out by opening our doors to provide a place to host weekend Masses for the time being. I ask all of you to keep the parish community in your prayers. We have also been asked to say a rosary or a decade of the rosary in honor of Our Lady (since the church is named Our Lady of the Holy Rosary) during this difficult time.

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns. If you will be attending weekend Masses and would like to offer to help with set up or take down, please contact Laurie Halte at parish@holyrosarytacoma.org.

Thank you and have a wonderful day!

Katie Dempsey

Principal

Holy Rosary Bilingual Academy