St. Francis of Assisi Parish

The Care for Creation Mass, at St. James cathedral, September 2nd opened the Season of Creation 2026, which culminates with the feast of St. Francis of Assisi October 4th.

Archbishop Etienne presided over the mass, leading a procession of prayer to the icon of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. The icon had toured Washington native communities before permanent display in the cathedral, the product of decades of prayer, completed 20 years after she was credited with healing a Washington boy from a terminal illness and 16 years after canonization as the first Native American saint. During the procession, Archbishop Etienne emphasized the need to heed the examples and experiences of all native people in our area in respect and care for our common home.

Following the mass and procession, the archbishop attended a luncheon and synodal listening session, following Pope Leo’s instructions to gather information and ideas on ways in which our Catholic parishes can be better stewards of the gifts of creation God has given us. I was present along with over 50 other members of our archdiocese to provide our inputs as to what we felt was impeding our parishes and ways in which we can improve our responses towards protecting and restoring our common home. The archbishop reported that he will be organizing the information collected and then pass along these findings to the USCCB. He also committed to being more involved in educating parish priests as to setting parish goals to address these synodal findings.

Submitted by Maria Balsiger, member of the Life, Justice, Peace committee.

We meet the 4th Monday via Zoom.

Our email contact is stfoa.ljp@gmail.com  

Our web site is at stfoa.org/ljp