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Pastor’s Letter: August 16, 2026

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessed week to you all! Last week on August 11 we celebrated the Feast Day of our patroness, St. Philomena. Every time I think about her story, I am so edified by her strength and faithfulness to Christ—all at the age of 11 or 12 years old! Truly she is a great model for every follower of Christ, but I especially think at her age she is a special inspiration for our young people. This coming week we start up the new school year – please pray for all of our students and their families. May the Lord bless us with much growth in the minds and hearts of all who are here. May this coming school year bring us much fruit!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have met with some couples who, realizing that they weren’t married in the Church, are now seeking those great graces for their marriage and family—what a great gift! I thought it would be a good opportunity to review a bit about our process of Convalidation for Marriages…and of course to invite anyone who would like to talk about a particular situation to reach out to me at the parish office.

To begin, what actually is Convalidation? As part of a series of articles written by Fr. Charles Fox, he explains, “Convalidation” comes from two Latin words and means that a couple is getting married “with validity.” He goes on to explain that a convalidation is the celebration of the Sacrament of Marriage for a couple that was previously not married in the Church. There may be various reasons why the marriage wasn’t celebrated in a Catholic Church, including some situations where one or more of the spouses was married previously (more on that next week). Sometimes in common conversation, you might hear some talk about “having a marriage blessed” in the Church. I have also heard the description of..