Over the course of the last several years, St. Richard’s beautiful pipe organ has needed many repairs, large and small. Warned by our organ tuner that many larger repairs might eventually be needed, we decided to call in a reputable organ company to give us an overall assessment of what was needed to keep the instrument healthy and functioning for the future. To our surprise, the verdict was much worse than we anticipated. Much of the organ is structurally unsound, lots of the pipes are bent or missing or installed unsafely, and the crucial leather parts of the wind system are old, brittle, and will soon crack and fail. In light of this unsettling report, we’ve formed an ad hoc group to start looking at how we will deal with this situation. If you have questions, please talk to Fr. Mark or Betsy Sullivan, who will bring your thoughts to the group.