At a recent meeting of the Pierce County Deanery Council, the Pastors of the Deanery entered into a partnership with Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity to fund, build, and dedicate a house to Pope Francis in honor of his Jubilee Year of Mercy. This commitment provides every Catholic in the county with an opportunity to participate as their abilities and time permits.
How Can I Help?
Work on the house began in early June. Some of the ways you may wish to support this commitment to the Pope’s Jubilee Year are:
Organization
You could volunteer to be your Parish Coordinator for the project, helping to activate calling trees; lead work groups; orchestrate parish fund raising; etc.
Name the House
We are calling it the “Pope Francis Jubilee House” for the time being, but need a better name. The winner will help dedicate a plaque for the house.
Volunteer at the Building Site
Each parish will be able to designate a week, Tuesday through Saturday, for participation in building the house. Anyone, age 16 or older, will be able to work on the house. No construction experience is needed. There is something everyone can do. Younger people can help with landscaping.
Videography
We want to produce a complete digital scrapbook documenting our celebration of this Jubilee Year of Mercy by documenting the progress of the Jubilee House. We hope to send a copy to Pope Francis! If you are interested, email Dan Fannin or call 253-229-7877.
Prayer
You can lead a Prayer Circle for the parish or in your ministry group, praying for our success.
Social Media
We will need a Facebook guru and contributors to keep everyone in all the parishes aware of our progress. If you are interested, email Dan Fannin or call 253-229-7877.
Nutrition
Snacks and lunches for those at the construction site. This might be something our youth groups could handle.
Family Selection
The community was encouraged to ask qualifying parishioners to apply for the house, helping Habitat for Humanity find a family who will own and live in the house when it is finished.
Wall Raising
Many from local parishes in the Pierce Deanery attended the ‘Wall Raising’— kind of like a ground breaking. A Blessing was offered at the Wall Raising on June 11, 2016 by Father Nick Wichert.
Parishioners were provided permanent markers with which to write prayers, messages, well wishing, etc. on the house’s framing materials.
In support of the Wall Raising, 20-30 volunteers worked that Saturday on the house framing.
A Community Effort
It is the hope that volunteers are representative of each of the deanery parishes. The Pope’s Jubilee house will be in TPC H4H’s community called, ‘The Woods’ lot #218. The street address is 1006 104th St E, Tacoma WA 98445.
A Jubilee Year of Mercy to Remember
Please join us in helping to make this Jubilee Year of Mercy one to be remembered. To volunteer or for more information, email or call 253-383-2783.
View photos and to learn more, read the news article “A House to Honor Pope Francis” published in Northwest Catholic
