News - The Weekly

Williams also won the 2022 Letitia Woods Brown Award for Best Book in African American Women's History from the Association of Black Women Historians. More from the Black Catholic Messenger newsletter through the link.

November is a time to pray for vocations. We thank you for your prayers and support for vocations in the Diocese of Oakland. Learn more about vocations through the link.

Applications are now open for perpetual pilgrims on the 2024 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, comprised of four routes leading to Indianapolis next summer for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress. The full pilgrimage schedules have not been announced, but multiple routes will include stops related to Black Catholics. More information through the link.

Simbang Gabi (Filipino for “Night Masses”) is traditionally a pre-dawn novena of Masses, approximately from December 16-24, culminating at Christmas midnight Mass. Bishop Barber will join the Simbang Gabi kickoff Mass at Church of the Good Shepherd (Pittsburg) Saturday, December 9, 10:00am. Parish Novena schedule through the link.

Read through the link for an update from Bishop Barber on the Bankruptcy Process.

An update from the Office of the Vicar General.

Bishop Barber will celebrate Adult Confirmation at the Cathedral of Christ the Light on February 3, 2024 and May 4, 2024. To register your parish, please complete this form by Monday, December 4, 2023. Link to form and additional deadlines through the link.

Celebrate our National Black Catholic History Month at St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church every Sunday in the month of November. Celebrate Mass at 9:00 a.m.

NPM celebrates the Black Catholic men and women who have shaped our faith and life in the Church, especially during the month of November. Helpful resources, videos, music and podcasts through the link.

Since the Hamas attacks earlier this month, and in the wake of boldly proclaimed rhetoric and the increase of actions of religious hatred in the United States, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty issued a sharp rebuke and called for peace. Link to the statement through the link.

Click through the link for a list of Black Saint Feast Days in November.

Please join Bishop Michael Barber, SJ in a day of prayer and fasting for peace on October 17, 2023. Read the letter from the Patriarch of Jerusalem through the link.

Through extraordinary parishioner generosity, the 2023 Bishop’s Ministries Appeal – I Am With You Always – has raised 73% of the $3 million goal! With everyone’s help, we can not only reach our goal, we can surpass it! Please help your parish towards its goal – funds raised over and above your parish’s goal are returned to the parish for its own needs. Appeal ends December 31 – please donate today at https://oakdiocese.org/bishops-appeal-donation-page.

Updates to The Catholic Voice mailing list are made monthly. Thank you to the parishes that keep us up to date. Any changes received this week will be made for the December issue. After that, they will be made for the January 2O24 issue. Please send mailing list additions, subtractions and changes to mjurich@oakdiocese.org.

Submissions of events in December, 2023 and January and February, 2024 are welcome. If there is a major event in 2024 -- a 50th or 100th anniversary celebration for your parish, for example -- please let us know so we may get it on our calendar. Submissions to mjurich@oakdiocese.org.

We enthusiastically encourage and invite a representative of EACH of the communities to submit the name and year of death information for saints of their ethnic group for the entire year. (*Note: Accuracy of information included here is entirely the responsibility of those submitting it.)