2025–2026 Year in Review

Looking back with gratitude · July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026

“I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way.” — 1 Corinthians 1:4-5

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As you look through this Year in Review, I hope you will not simply see what our parish has accomplished. I hope you will recognize what God has accomplished through your generosity and faithfulness. Every life changed, every prayer offered, every child baptized, every soul welcomed home, and every ministry strengthened is a reminder that God continues to do remarkable things in our parish.

Thank you for believing in the mission of St. Paul the Apostle Parish to call, form, and send disciples of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your generosity, your prayers, and your commitment to building God’s Kingdom here in Westerville. It is a privilege to serve as your pastor, and I look forward with great hope to all that the Lord has in store for us in the year ahead. May God continue to bless you and your family.

In Christ,
Fr. Jonathan F. Wilson, Pastor

More Than a Number

10,710 Members	4,866 Families	372 New families
160 Baptisms	169 First Communions	173 Confirmations
3,751 Avg. weekend Mass attendance	650 Adorers	68 Welcomed at the Easter Vigil
918 School enrollment (incl. preschool)	408 Parish School of Religion	203 Walking with Purpose participants
24,000 Sandwiches made to serve the poor	259 Supported by St. Vincent de Paul	624 Supported by Homebound Ministry

Plus 28 weddings, 62 funerals, 55 high school youth ministry participants, and 76 young adult participants.

Calling People to Christ

Meeting people where they are and inviting them into a real encounter with Jesus Christ.

• Our OCIA program is seeing record numbers. At the Easter Vigil we welcomed 68 new members into the Church, and more than 100 people are preparing to enter the Church in the coming year.
• Our Come to Me page now brings together every opportunity to grow in faith at St. Paul in one place, from Bible studies and marriage enrichment to Adoration, Confession, and parish events.
• This Advent we celebrated three Rorate Caeli Masses, Marian Masses offered before dawn in a church lit only by candlelight.
• The Westerville Symphony performed Handel’s Messiah here, and our own choir offered the St. Paul Concert of Sacred Music for Advent and Christmas under Director of Sacred Music Stephen Smith.

Forming Disciples

Following the pattern Jesus set with the twelve, we accompany people through prayer, Scripture, the sacraments, and ordinary friendship until Christ’s way of life becomes their own.

• Parish Mission: over three nights, Fr. Joseph Tuscan, OFM Cap., preached on the greatest threat to holiness today, on prayer and the rebuilding of the family, and on returning to the Mass as the source of the remedy.
• Lenten series on St. Paul: Fr. Kevin Girardi’s four-part series opened to a standing-room-only crowd, and we moved the rest of the series to the Klinger Center to fit everyone.
• Teens: weekly discipleship groups, monthly holy hours, fall and spring retreats, and liturgical formation through the Knights of the Holy Temple and the Handmaids of the Eucharist are producing student leaders who now form others.
• St. Joseph Adoration Chapel: opened in September on the lower level, with Adoration weekday mornings through evening and Thursday exposition in the church.
• More Confession: now Sunday mornings before the 10:00 Mass, and before every Sunday Mass during Advent and Lent.

Sending Disciples

Disciples are sent into their families, workplaces, and neighborhoods to do for a few others exactly what was done for them.

• Corpus Christi Procession: we followed the Blessed Sacrament under the open sky in public witness to Christ’s real presence.
• Columbus Catholic Young Adult Conference: we hosted hundreds of young adults for Eucharistic adoration, keynote talks, and breakout sessions.
• Four men from our parish are in formation for the priesthood.
• Westerville Fourth Fridays: our table on the square met neighbors all summer with a welcome and an invitation.
• Mary’s Meals: St. Paul School students sponsored Chimbalame School in Malawi from their own lunch money.
• Community Kitchen Christmas party: on December 23 we helped serve 292 guests a holiday meal and sent them home with warm clothing, blankets, and toys, all given by parishioners through the Jesse Tree Project and the school gift collection.

Your Gifts Matter

• Catholic education: our school and parish contributed more than $200,000 to the Emmaus Road Scholarship Fund.
• Help for those in crisis: your donations helped St. Vincent de Paul and WARM give more than $220,000 in goods and services to neighbors in need.
• Campus improvements: we finished the first phase of renovations to the old gym, now the St. Carlo Acutis Discipleship Center, and resurfaced or resealed the parking lots across campus.
• Safety and security: Westerville Police officers are now present at our weekend Masses.

Offertory & Financial Highlights

	2024–2025	2025–2026
Giving families	3,107	3,256
Average weekly offertory	$79,929	$83,154

Stewardship highlights

Capital maintenance & improvements	$662,000
Excess principal payments for debt reduction	$361,140
Addition to reserves for future maintenance	$325,000

Offerings

Offertory contributions	$4,499,867
Tuition (family paid) + other parish subsidies	$3,411,380
Tuition (government-paid scholarships)	$2,492,600
Government programs, preschool, interparochial	$1,527,483
After-school care, Marian Gift Shop, religious education	$604,377
Restricted gifts	$539,203
Other (interest, investment return, rentals, etc.)	$383,893
Total	$13,458,803

How our offerings were used

Salaries & benefits	$7,756,462
Depreciation	$1,267,800
Preschool, student services	$822,103
Administrative	$785,191
Facilities & grounds	$764,631
Worship, sacraments, church activities	$646,886
Diocesan & high school support	$606,813
School operations	$325,128
Interest, taxes, insurance	$67,036
Total	$13,042,050

Net income: $416,753. Diocesan and special collections, including $438,418 to The Appeal, are listed in the full report.

A Year with Our Patron

• Feast of the Conversion: we opened the year with a packed church and veneration of first-class relics of St. Paul, including one of his bones and a fragment of the pillar of his martyrdom.
• St. Carlo Acutis: 1,853 people waited in line to venerate the relics of the Church’s first millennial saint; nearly 450 came to morning Mass and more than 230 stayed for the Holy Hour. Guests’ gifts of food and toiletries filled the shelves at St. James the Less.
• Four Nights on St. Paul: all four of Fr. Girardi’s talks are available at cometome.stpacc.org.
• Our Patronal Feast: on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, our parish birthday, the relics returned for veneration.

Areas of Focus in 2026–2027

Our mission is to call, form, and send disciples of Jesus Christ. In the year ahead we will focus on three areas:

The Mass

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. We want to keep going deeper as a parish: growing in our understanding of the Mass, celebrating it with reverence, and allowing our encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist to transform the way we live.

Evangelical Encounters

Every ministry and every interaction is an opportunity to help someone take a step closer to Christ. We want everyone we encounter to be seen, welcomed, and invited to grow in their relationship with Christ and His Church.

Strengthening for Mission

By strengthening communication and collaboration, equipping our staff and ministry leaders, and stewarding our resources well, we can more fully support the life and mission of our parish: a parish united in purpose and equipped to call, form, and send.