Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 30 August 2026

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

A couple of things this week.

You’ll be seeing a lot from the Church during the next few weeks about the upcoming election in which the people of Virginia will vote about three constitutional amendments. You are welcome to read Bishop Burbidge and Knestout’s letter on pp. 8-9 of this bulletin.

It needs to be noted that this is not an election of people and is therefore non-partisan, although things tend to trend sadly according to partisan polarization. This is a vote about right and wrong how the Church teaches, and the bishops want to get everyone registered to vote as soon as possible. Early voting begins Sept. 18.

Ballot question 1 - would permit an abortion by anyone (minor or adult) up until the moment of birth, without any parental notification. When asked, at least, for consideration of medical care for a child who might survive an abortion, even that was denied. This can’t not be evil.

Ballot question 2 - seeks to make a constitutional definition of marriage as a bond between two adults. The Church is seeking to not lose the distinction of man and woman in marriage, as given by Revelation. This is NOT a vote NO to people of different sexual orientations -- we need to pray together about this, work to heal the damage which has been caused, affirm that we recognize the dignity of all persons, and seek to accompany them on their journey, not cast them aside.

Ballot question 3 seeks to restore voting rights to previously incarcerated persons who deserve a second chance.

New Parish Life Center Update

You may have noticed...the letter we received from Bishop Burbidge in last week’s bulletin giving us permission to finally move forward on our building program! It has been seven years, and nobody feels it more that those of us who have been working on this all this time! It is determined that our finances are solid, our project is well thought out and now we have a green light to go.

Already this past week we had our first contract/design meeting with the diocesan construction office representative, our architects, our civil engineers, and our project managers for our general contractor. We have a good team, and all are
very interested in delivering a great facility on time and on budget (or less!). Of course, there are uncertainties about the current market, inflation, tariffs, supply chain volatility... the list of variables is long, but this is what God wants for our parish family, and it will happen.

We are currently at 35% design development and the architects and contractors now begin using the design-build process to see where we can make some changes to save money, and keep an eye on utilities costs in the future, too. The civil engineers are at 95% completion and should be able to submit the site plan to the county within weeks to begin the permit process.

A preliminary timeline has been established and I would very much like to report that today, but we still need to factor in some variables before everybody gets their hopes set on a particular date. At the very least, we believe we can break ground late spring/early summer of 2027! Construction might be less than a year!

Once things really get going, we will be able to keep you up to date on what is happening and what comes next. It has been a great frustration to have nothing to report for so long a time, but I had a strong sense in the meeting this week that those days are over and we have nothing but a lot of building to do.

A reminder: we just finished the Parish Renewal Handbook and Ministry Catalog that you should be receiving in a couple of weeks by mail. Parish Life Weekend is Sept. 12-13. Time now to pray about your personal commitment to building this community with your time, talent and treasure.

The Lord be with you,