Palmerton’s Catholic community has a long and proud history and Sacred Heart Parish has been at the center of it all for more than 100 years. To ensure this vibrancy continues for generations to come, Sacred Heart established a parish fund with the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania.
“Our parishioners have always been generous in their service and with their financial donations to the church,” said Reverend Michael Mullins, Pastor of Sacred Heart. “We want to ensure that those efforts are prudently managed such that we may continue our mission for ages to come.”
During the past two years, Sacred Heart Parish has been able to reduce expenses and increase its income especially through fundraising activities such as the Palmerton Festival, Summer Flea Market, and Cash Bingo every second Sunday of the month.
About the Sacred Heart Parish Fund
“Instead of leaving those extra funds in a savings account earning meager interest, we wanted to invest for our future, through the Catholic Foundation,” Father Mullins said.
The Sacred Heart Parish Fund will be used to support a wide variety of initiatives in the parish community—from general repairs and maintenance on items such as the roof or boiler, to liturgical offerings and other religious programming and outreach. Parish funds like Sacred Heart’s play an important role in providing parishes with a dependable, long-term income source to support operations and broaden community outreach.
“We want to build on the parish’s strong legacy,” Father Mullins said, “so we need to look at it with a more intentional long-term approach.”
Sacred Heart Parish, Then and Now
Palmerton’s Catholic community can be traced back to at least the mid-1800s. Its first Catholic church, the Fireline Church, was built by a German Catholic congregation in 1856. After it was destroyed in a fire, congregants found a temporary home on Third Street.
The cornerstone for the Sacred Heart Church was laid near the intersection of Third and Lafayette streets in 1908. In 1928, the church was remodeled and expanded. A new building to house the auditorium and school — now serving grades 3-8 as part of the St. John Neuman Regional School — was constructed in 1930.
The parish has experienced an increase in Mass attendance during the past year.
“People are coming back to church,” Father Mullins said. “As with any Catholic church, the greatest thing we can do is bring Christ to the people and the people to Christ.”
Father Mullins believes for his parish to continue to grow, they need to have the right mechanisms in place to support and sustain that growth.
“That’s where the Catholic Foundation comes in,” he said. “They will help us spread the word.”
Two Funds Supporting the Sacred Heart Parish
Sacred Heart now has two funds with the Catholic Foundation: the new parish fund and a cemetery fund started a few years ago. In addition to managing the assets in both of those funds, the Catholic Foundation will assist Father Mullins and his parish team in marketing and growing these funds, especially with planned gifts.
“Endowment funds are the perfect repository for planned gifts,” said Pete Waldron, President of the Catholic Foundation.
Having funds in place makes it easier for parishioners to direct a gift in a will, memorial gifts in an obituary, and beneficiary designations from an IRA or insurance policy, Waldron said.
“As people become more aware of these funds, they will begin to understand the impact planned gifts can have on the future of our parish,” Father Mullins said.
“A strong, healthy endowment fund will help our parish thrive and allow us to teach the faith to a new generation of Catholics,” he said. “Through the Mass and the Eucharist, we can help people build a stronger relationship with Christ.”
