From the Pastor's Desk  February 20, 2011

The year 2010 was our first full year as Holy Family Parish. We became a new parish on August 15, 2009. I recently saw some statistics from the Archdiocese that paint a picture of how we compared in 2010 with the last full year in 2007 when we were nine different parish and mission churches.

Our current number of registered families in Holy Family Parish is 2,069 households. Prior to Hurricane Ike there were 2,804 families registered in the nine parish and mission churches. There has been a decrease of 735 households. This is a 26% drop, which seems to fit the pattern of loss in population for Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula since Hurricane Ike. Holy Family is what would be called a mid-sized parish in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. The largest parish has 9,618 families.

Pre-Ike Parish/Mission Families
St. Patrick	911
Sacred Heart	710
Holy Rosary	307
St. Peter the Apostle	300
St. Mary’s Cathedral	206
Reina de la Paz	200
St. Theresa (Bolivar)	70
Our Mother of Mercy (Bolivar)	69
Mary Star of the Sea	31
Total	2,804

The number of sacraments celebrated in Holy Family Parish in 2010 was considerable. If we were able to accommodate all of the requests for weddings that come to us, we would have 250–300 weddings a year. Many brides seem to want to be married on the island. Below are the statistics for the number of different sacraments celebrated in 2010 at Holy Family Parish. Some say it is good to have more Baptisms than Funerals.

Baptisms	147
Funerals	134
First Communions	91
Weddings	58
Confirmations	52
Total	147

Opening Celebration, September 13, 2009
Franciscan newsletter features our opening celebration