St. John Paul II event on Friday to aid sister parishes

St. John Paul II Catholic Parish's annual garage sale for sister parishes in Haiti and Tennessee is moved up a couple of months this year, but Deacon Tim Murphy, garage sale coordinator, is hopeful that despite the change the event is once again a success.

The sale will be from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, June 9, in the gym at Kuemper Catholic School St. Lawrence Center.

Susan Murphy of St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll holds a new member of St. John Paul II of Rutledge, Tennessee.

The sale traditionally fills the gym with thousands of items — housewares, dishes, decorations, small appliances (toaster ovens, mixers, blenders), artworks, books, games, toys and much more. Most items range in price from 25 cents to $3. But there are higher prices on such items as furniture (chairs, desks, cabinets, etc.), power tools, bicycles and golf clubs. Prices are reduced as the sale winds down.

In conjunction with the garage sale, there will be a baked goods and produce sale in the cafeteria next to the gym.

Proceeds from the sale will go to St. John Paul II's sister parishes — Notre Dame de Lourdes at Les Cayes, Haiti, and St. John Paul II Mission in Rutledge, Tennessee.

Before the merger of St. Lawrence and Holy Spirit parishes in Carroll to create St. John Paul II, each parish held its own garage sale fundraiser — St. Lawrence's for the Haiti parish and Holy Spirit's for the Tennessee parish. They now combine efforts and divide the donation.

The St. Lawrence garage sale over the years was held about the same time as the Feast of St. Lawrence on Aug. 10. St. John Paul II kept the combined churches’ sale in August until this year. Murphy said the new date will allow more time to get the school building ready for next school year.

People in the community can deliver items to donate to the sale from noon until 5 p.m. Thursday, June 8.

Volunteers to help with the sale are welcomed.

"There's a great sense of fellowship and purpose working together. It's a great feeling," Murphy said.

The sister parish in Haiti is located in a very poor rural area on the southwest side of the island, about 100 miles southwest of the country's capital of Port-au-Prince.

Conditions in Haiti are near the lowest of Third World countries, Murphy noted.

Over the years, Haiti has been devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes, and now the country is also reeling from violence following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.

St. Lawrence Parish has assisted the Haiti parish for many years, helping build a K-12 school attended by hundreds of students, a chapel and a nursing home as well as rebuild the church.

"There's plenty of work to do there, from feeding the hungry to rebuilding the infrastructure," Murphy said.

Meanwhile, St. John Paul II Mission is located in Rutledge in east Tennessee, between Kingsport and Knoxville, and has a population of about 1,400.

Tennessee's St. John Paul II recently constructed a multipurpose building that's largely worship space, and the first Mass there was celebrated in March 2022. Masses previously were celebrated in storefront retail spaces.

A group from Carroll visited Rutledge last fall to see the new building and do service work.

Murphy said one of his impressions was "They’re a great, tight community and support each other."

The Rev. Neil Pezzulo, pastor in Rutledge since January 2020, said his congregation is made up of a number of retired residents plus many Latinos, who have located there to work either in construction or tomato production. Tomatoes are the area's most popular cash crop, and a tomato festival is celebrated every year.

Pezzulo said donations from St. John Paul II in Carroll are used mainly for religious education.

St. John Paul II Mission in Rutledge, Tennessee, last year opened a multipurpose facility used for religious services. The annual garage sale at St. Lawrence in Carroll assists the Tennessee church.

"They absolutely fund that," Pezzulo told the Times Herald. "Without that we really would be scrambling."

"We were able to have a number of different families participate in rites of initiation, so at Easter time between baptisms, first communions and confirmations, we had 28 people receive sacraments, which is a huge number for a population that's less than 1 percent Catholic."

Many Latino parents were taking classes at the same time as their children because the adults didn't have those opportunities previously in other countries, he said.

Pezzulo said the multipurpose building has capacity for about 140 people, and there's also an outdoor patio.

"The next big project is to try to get a playground put in for the kids," he said. And the hope is to someday build a permanent church.

In addition to the garage sale. St. John Paul II in Carroll, also takes up a special collection for the Haiti and Tennessee parishes.

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