August 22, 2025 – Pastor’s Note

Priestly Unity

Unity in the Church is really important. We are, after all, the one Body of Christ, united by one faith and one baptism. And, as a leader in the Church, it is essential that I always express and model unity with the Pope, the Archbishop, and my brother priests. This is not to say that there will never be disagreements or differences of opinion – a healthy family is always able to talk out contentious issues – but it does mean that the visible unity of the Body of Christ always takes precedent over our divisions or disagreements and that we should never endanger that unity.

(If you are curious, the Church defines “full communion” as unity in doctrine, in sacraments, and in governance. Meaning that we can disagree about anything as long as we continue to maintain unity in those areas. We have to stay true to the Catechism, we have to retain valid sacraments, and we have to remain obedient to the Pope and the bishops in communion with him.)

Anyway, all of that is a very long way of saying that your priests also have a heavy responsibility to model the unity of the Body of Christ amongst ourselves. It would not be healthy for the people of Whatcom County if they heard Fr. Moore say one thing and Fr. Tyler say something seemingly opposite, or if Fr. Gerardo said Mass one way and Fr. Stephan said Mass in a very different way. We priests should be talking to each other and working together regularly, so that the People of God can see us as a united group.

I have known and cared about this principle since we started together as one county Family, but I have really struggled to carry it out. Last year, I tried to do a 30-minute online meeting with the priests together once-a-week, but that never felt particularly helpful, especially if one of us had a meeting or could not otherwise make it. I also tried to schedule a monthly dinner following first Friday confessions, but that also got cancelled as often as we actually did it.

This year, I am instead doing one-on-one meetings with each of our Parochial Vicars for one hour, every other week. I met with Fr. Gerardo and Fr. Tyler this week, and I can tell you that I am over the moon. (I will meet with Fr. Stephan next week.) Even after just one hour of focused conversation about ministry together, I feel much closer and more united to my brother priests. Generally, I am always trying to eliminate recurring meetings from my calendar, so I was resistant to adding these, rather than sticking with the 30-minutes together. But I have high hopes for these meetings, for our priests, and for the unity of our Family.

School Starting Up

Next week is the first week of classes at Assumption Catholic School. I love school ministry and believe that it is highly impactful for the faith of the younger generation. So I am super excited to have students and teachers back next week.

We have been forced to use waitlists for many of our grades these last few years (our school became very popular following COVID), which has been good for the school but sad for me, as I want everyone who desires a Catholic education to have access to it. However, we do have a few spots left for next year, so if you have been thinking about coming to ACS, PLEASE reach out and see if we can accommodate you. This is ESPECIALLY true if you think that you cannot afford it – there is tuition help available, and we want to work with you to see if we can make things work.

We also have the strange anomaly of having quite a few extra spots in our 1st grade class next year, despite the wait lists in other grades. If you know any 1st graders, we would LOVE to hear from them, and to work with them to bring them into our school.