Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 26 October 2025

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

After our picnic last Saturday I sent a thank you email to our primary leaders/volunteers who made the picnic such a success. It was truly beautiful to see so many people really invested in our community life with their time and hard work.

This is what I wrote to our parish leaders:

“Several people mentioned to me as the carnival features were leaving the parking lot last night how amazing it was to watch so many from so many different ministries come together and make such a beautiful afternoon possible. Thanks, Rick Caporali, for your organization and tireless commitment to building our community, and to all of you who gathered the flock, broke the loaves and fed the 3,000. It was a remarkable, holy gathering. Last evening I was thinking of one of my favorite songs’ third verse says:

All our meals and all our living
make as sacraments of you,
that by caring, helping, giving,
we may be disciples true.
Alleluia, alleluia!
we will serve with faith anew.

I think we can say that this was one of the happiest, most vibrant days that Saint Bernadette has ever seen in building community and witnessing kindness and goodness. Thanks to you.”

But it was also all of you who came with side dishes, and set up games and crafts for the kids, and spent the afternoon building friendships. So much of the logistics and grilling covered by our Knights of Columbus. Our school teachers and staff who came on a non-school day to see all the kids. I do believe it was one of the best things that has ever happened at Saint Bernadette and it is thanks to all of you who came and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon together. There are a few photos on pages 10 and 11 of today’s bulletin.
________

I have been working my way slowly through Pope Leo’s new Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te (“I have loved you”) and am happy to say he tells things like it is and says it well.

I was asked the difference between and apostolic exhortation and an encyclical so I checked with my new friend A. I. Overview. Here is what he says: An encyclical is a formal, pastoral letter from the pope to the entire Church on matters of faith and morals, while an apostolic exhortation is a papal reflection that urges the faithful to take a specific course of action or address a particular spiritual matter. Encyclicals have greater doctrinal weight, while exhortations are less formal and are often a response to a significant event...

Clearly, however, the Pope has a lot on his mind about the way the poor are being treated in today’s world, and he finds it remarkably troubling. The news seems just to be getting worse, and my resolve for us as a parish to do something about it is much stronger. We need, right now, to be attentive to the situation people are finding themselves in this government shutdown. If SNAP benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) stop being issued, there will be a great need for food. If people are unable to afford health care... I don’t even know what that would look like.

It was very sobering to read in a recent study that, because our nation has stopped providing financial assistance to the poor of the world, by the year 2030 14 million people will die that would not have died otherwise with our assistance.

It is almost too hard to watch. I’m grateful we have Pope Leo and I hope that the leaders of the world are listening, and will experience the personal and spiritual conversion God desires to bring an end to these senseless wars and destruction.

We’re still planning our Burke/Springfield Interfaith Thanksgiving Service and have chosen the title “Kindness is our path forward.” We can’t let such division and negativity pull us apart at the seams in our community. May we stay attentive to what we know to be true and commit to making our world grow in goodness and beauty through acts of kindness and forgiveness, extending the good will of our picnic into the days ahead.

The Lord be with you,