Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 6 September 2026

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Labor Day every year gives us a chance to review Catholic Social Teaching which views work as a participation in God’s creation and insists that the economy must serve people rather than people serving the economy. There is “no time like the present,” as my mom used to say, to remember this when people globally are largely exploited in the interest of personal gain. Every person deserves dignity.

It was the Catholic Church that announced for the first time that a laborer was worth his wage, and that the wage should be a living or just wage, that is, enough for someone to support themselves and their families. Work should build both a healthy society and allow personal growth.

With so much information at our fingertips now, I have done a little research and learned something new.

Labor Day in the United States was started by the Central Labor Union in New York City, with labor leader Peter J. McGuire widely credited as a primary founder who proposed the concept. The first official U.S. Labor Day event took place on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. President Grover Cleveland signed a law on June 28, 1894, making the first Monday in September an official federal holiday.

Peter McGuire was born into a poor Irish Catholic family and raised in the Catholic faith. He quit school and went to work at 11 to support his family when his father went off to fight for the Union Army. In the 1870s he was deeply involved in the campaign for the eight-hour day.

The Church’s teaching on labor came to light first with Rerum novarum, an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter passed to all Catholic bishops addressing the condition of the working class. It discusses the relationships and mutual duties between labor and capital, as well as between government and its citizens.

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Parish Life Weekend is next weekend!

When asked why the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal was necessary at its beginning, I remember Bishop Loverde saying that, in a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to ask. But people by nature simply don’t give spontaneously. We need to be given a particular time and place to make our commitments which we know are necessary, but too easy to put off.

Next weekend we observe the many opportunities offered by the parish for prayer, service, and financial support of the parish and ministries. It is an intentional time put on the calendar to help us remember our responsibility to each other and to our parish to serve and to give. Life gets busy and it’s too easy to forget. The following weekend September 19-20 is commitment Sunday when we ritualize our intentions by placing our commitment card in the offertory at Mass.

Whatever is possible in a parish commun-ity depends on the entire community, so I ask everyone to take part.

My brothers and I still do Sunday night Zoom calls (since the pandemic) and my younger brother Bob (ordained a priest last May) was telling us about his parish. His school has about 800 students, three classrooms per grade and a big preschool program. He said that Catholic education at their school costs about $9K per student. I asked him what they charge for tuition.

Nothing.

This is a rare glimpse of what is possible. How amazing that would be if we could provide Catholic education to everyone who seeks it! Members of his parish and school are all expected to tithe 8% of their income to the church/school and it pays all their salaries, bills, and expenses. As Catholics we don’t talk as much about tithing, but it is a traditional way of thinking about what we have. Rather than “how much do I have to give?” it asks the ques-tion, “how much do I have to keep?”

The Lord be with you,