Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 11 October 2026

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

I’m writing this letter on Tuesday morning in the middle of this year’s annual forum of Christian Churches Together in Birmingham. CCT is a relatively new ecumenical annual, national gathering of churches who enter into a particular dialogue topic each year. This year, the topic is how we begin the process of deep healing of the deep divisions which wound our world, our country, and our church families.

CCT was actually begun 20 years ago when it was noted that there were families of Christianity that were not intentionally participating in active dialogue because, for whatever reason, they didn’t feel like they were being heard. I must admit that, when all the churches are considered individually, the Catholic Church is overwhelmingly large. CCT is a consortium of five Christian families which makes the sizes more equal: Roman Catholics, Mainline Protestants, Orthodox, Historic Black Protestants, and
Evangelicals/Pentecostals. This is the first group with which such a dialogue has intentionally involved all five of these “families” and given them equal voice.

Each day a different family leads prayer. For some of us the kind of free-flowing prayer of Evangelicals and Pentecostals can seem a bit uneasy. This is one of the benefits of this gathering: we stretch, we come to understand each other more.

CCT is based on a particular kind of ecumenical dialogue (between baptized peoples) called Receptive Ecumenism. Receptive, because the emphasis is on listening and receiving what the other has to say with respect and reflection. Often it results in undoing old presuppositions of each other and misunderstandings. We live in a world that is a lot of talk and not a lot of listening.

I am excited about the prospects of our con-versation this week. Our emphasis is going to focus on prayer, and in particular the way we pray together as unique families. I have adapted the USCCB prayer service for immigrants, enslaved persons, and refugees which we did at Saint Bernadette in early September for the Cathedral of Saint Paul tonight here in Birmingham. I’m going to talk the uniquely Catholic and mostly misunderstood practices of prayer asking Mary and the saints to intercede for us, and the difference between veneration and worship. When we place flowers before the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe it is because we honor her, not worship her. We thank her for her patronage of the Americas, and entrust to her all the people who are suffering and at risk today in our continents.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Next weekend is our parish picnic! Like other years, it is a celebration of our parish family life filled with entertainment, games, activities and good food. Please remember that everyone is asked to bring a side dish according to your last name alphabetically - whether that be a side salad or vegetables, fruit, desserts, or snacks. Look for the pages later in this bulletin for reference. We ask that snacks be nonperishable, because whatever is left over we will give to ECHO.

The picnic is just the beginning! Look forward to our church dedication’s anniversary Mass, the visit of the relics of Saint Bernadette the first week of November, and the amazing Rise Against Hunger project the week following that. It is a busy time!

If you recall, the Rise Against Hunger project we were able to accomplish last year provided 175,000 meals for children in East Timor, an island north of the Philippines. Rise Against Hunger sends these nutritious meals to schools in the poorest parts of the world where children actually come to school because they know they will have a meal to eat -- and receive an education, too. We don’t really have any concept of this kind of poverty, and yet hundreds of millions of our brothers and sisters across the world don’t know anything else. Please be generous in helping us buy the ingredients, and when sign-up opens for volunteers, be sure to join us!

The Lord be with you,