It’s a particularly thankful weekend for parishioners at Tecumseh’s
St. Anne’s Catholic Church after an anonymous donor offered to donate up
to $1.25 million towards the building’s restoration.
The church was informed of the offer Tuesday, a day after former St.
Anne’s priest Robert Couture was sentenced for stealing from the church
coffers.
“It was a bolt out of the blue,” said Rev. Eugene Roy, who felt the
timing of the offer was connected to the completion of the legal
proceedings.
“It’s been very difficult for the staff having to testify. We went from a feeling of intense morass to ecstatic jubilation.
“We’re just floored. We feel like we’re turning over a new leaf.”
The 143-year-old church needs approximately $2.5 million in
structural repairs. Most of that going to repair the east and west walls
that have an imprinted stucco covering brick walls.
“The offer is like a lure that the donor hopes will attract other
individuals and groups to jump in,” said Roy, who couldn’t say if the
donor was a local resident.
“We’d always planned on a campaign to raise more funds to finish the
job, we just didn’t think we’d have to launch it this soon.”
The deal on the table for the church is the donor will match up to
$1.25 million for any donations raised before the end of October. If the
maximum is achieved, that would be enough to address the structural
concerns.
Roy said the steeple — which has been sitting on the front lawn of
the church for nearly a decade — is a separate item that’ll be the last
thing addressed in the restoration. He said it’ll cost about $632,000 to
get the steeple back on top of the tower.
“That’s really the cherry on the top,” said Roy, who said the church
will have an announcement on the steeple in the not too distant future.
“There’s no point putting the steeple on until we address what are
safety issues. Mortar could fall on the sidewalks along Lespearance
Road.
“The next step was getting that fenced off before spring.”
Instead, there’s a glimmer of hope that the whole project could be catapulted forward by years.
The St. Anne’s community has already raised $1.2 million to repair the tower and front facade of the building.
Roy said even if the fundraising campaign can get the church to the
70 per cent mark of what’s needed, that would qualify the parish for a
loan to finish the work from the Diocese of London.
“This would be put us in a position to complete the other restoration
work,” said Roy, who addresses an average of 1,800 parishioners each
weekend.
“The indoor of the church is in good shape. We just have to restore the outer structure.”