A special Economic Impact Task Force established to help parishes and Catholic schools weather the COVID-19 pandemic held its last meeting in February, certain that at least for now its mission has been accomplished.

“It was bringing together people with different experiences and backgrounds, a think tank for how we could assist through the pandemic,” said Tom Mertens, chief financial officer for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a task force member. “We feel we accomplished the things we were set up to do.”

To get to this point took generous parishioners and organizations continuing to help the Church in difficult times, federal assistance primarily in the form of Paycheck Protection Program loans designed for small businesses and nonprofits, and the archdiocese’s task force monitoring the financial health of parishes and schools and finding resources to help them, Mertens said.

The task force was formed in mid-March 2020, as Minnesota took key steps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. State officials, business owners and faith leaders suspended in-person gatherings in workplaces, at restaurants, movie theaters and public Masses. As clouds of illness and economic instability gathered, so did a group of experts — by teleconference — to help the archdiocese through the storm.

That first meeting, filled with unknowns, had an urgency and focus that reminded one of the Apollo 13 mission that aborted when an oxygen tank failed and NASA engineers had to get the astronauts home, said Jean Houghton, a task force member and president of St. Paul-based Aim Higher Foundation, which provides tuition assistance to families sending their children to Catholic schools in the archdiocese.

“We have this situation, we know it needs to be addressed, we have some tools in the toolbox, let’s get some people in the same room,” and map out a way forward, Houghton said.

Everyone worked well together, tasks were clearly outlined and communications about funding, government assistance and other topics were streamlined to parishes and schools, Houghton said. An email was established for questions that were distributed to the best task force member to address in real time.

The seven-member task force met each Monday, Wednesday and Friday through most of the summer, then twice a week until the last several months, when it met once a week. The last meeting was Feb. 24, via Zoom. The task force updated Archbishop Bernard Hebda and his leadership team, and recommended several initiatives that will continue past the task force’s formation.

One recommendation is continuing to collect data on the financial health of parishes that had not been done before the pandemic, similar to data collected from Catholic schools, and sharing that information with parishes so they can compare themselves with their peers and learn from each other, Mertens said.

“How are my neighbors doing?” he said. “What are they doing differently? We can see how each group looks and help any outliers.”

Another recommendation stemmed from the task force’s study, in light of COVID-19, of the assessments that parishes provide to the archdiocese for programs and other services. In that study it became clear that a more general review of assessments also would be wise, Mertens said. That will be undertaken by the archdiocese in the coming months, marking the first such review since 2011 or 2012, he said.

From mid-March through last summer — the height of the financial uncertainty brought on by the pandemic — task force members helped business administrators at parishes and schools find and apply for COVID-driven government help, Mertens said. The task force also worked with Catholic Finance Corp., a financial advisory firm based in Inver Grove Heights, to run financial models that tracked the trajectory of parishes and schools to help target aid where it was most needed. CFC’s managing director, Al Erickson, was a task force member.

Other members included Father Charles Lachowitzer, the archdiocese’s moderator of the curia and vicar general; Jason Slattery, director of Catholic education in the archdiocese; Doug Milroy, former chairman and CEO of G&K Services Inc.; and Dan Statsick, former chairman of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and Corporate Board of Directors of the archdiocese.

In addition to CFC, organizations assisting the archdiocese through the pandemic include St. Paul-based Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota, which created a Minnesota Catholic Relief Fund that raised $1.6 million. About $325,000 went to immediate support for individuals and families identified by parishes as needing help to pay rent, purchase groceries and obtain medical supplies. The rest of the funding went to grants for parishes and schools that faced lower Sunday collections and higher costs due to the pandemic, including the need for additional cleaning, and health and safety materials and technology to enhance distance learning.

Meg Payne Nelson, the foundation’s vice president of impact, said CCF is no longer soliciting for the relief fund, but it is holding about $180,000 as it works with the archdiocese to meet parish and school needs. A special advisory committee at the foundation, which has been working in conjunction with the Economic Impact Task Force, meets again April 29 to see when and how best to distribute the remaining money.

“We didn’t want to spend it until Christmas, and across the system, people were generous at the beginning of the pandemic and at Christmas,” Nelson said. “So, we’ll get together and say, ‘OK, what is the data? Do we invite (grant) applications, is it better to wait?”

Aim Higher opened its reserve fund and increased its need-based scholarship donations to include students in families facing unexpected hardship such as job loss due to the pandemic, Houghton said. The application process was streamlined as well, into one paragraph describing verifiable need, she said.

“It was very fulfilling to be part of this team,” Houghton said. And the generosity and hard work among parishioners, teachers and others through a difficult year was “nothing short of extraordinary,” she said.

Mertens said the archdiocese will continue to monitor the situation, as well as any changes in government assistance and other programs that could help parishes and schools. If it’s deemed necessary, the task force could be called back into service, he said.

“I think the (task force) really came at a critical time, when parishes had a need for that assistance and to pull together,” Mertens said. “It’s enhanced our relationship with our parishes. It gave direction.”