Pastor’s Letter

Gregory L. Tracy/ The Pilot

Welcome to St. Katharine Drexel Parish.

As the pastor of St. Katharine Drexel (Parish), it is my honor and pleasure to invite you into an experience of this exceptionally beautiful community of faith. We are a Black Catholic Community of believers. To reference an expression of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, this means we know ourselves to be authentically Black and truly Catholic. To be clear, this Afro-centric expression of the Catholic faith is in no way intended to be exclusive or exclusionary. On the contrary, all people of good will are welcome to celebrate with us and call St. Katharine Drexel Parish their spiritual home. Our Black Catholic identity connotes our African American style of worship and the pastoral and spiritual outreach that is attributed to the memory of our ancestors who left us a tremendous legacy of faith.

St Katharine Drexel Parish is truly a unique example of Catholic universality in the Archdiocese of Boston. The Nigerian Catholic Community, which is an integral part of the parish, is a great reminder that all members of the African diaspora are united, not solely by location, but by our unity as the children of God. No matter your race, socio-economic status, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or anything else that society may use to divide us, at St. Katharine Drexel Parish we are all invited in the spirit of Umoja, Unity, to gather in solidarity around the Eucharistic table of life.

We invite you to visit us in person, so that we may demonstrate, and you may experience, that all are welcome in this place!

Fraternally yours,
Pastor Oscar J. Pratt II

If we wish to serve God and love our neighbor well, we must manifest our joy in the service we render to Him and them. Let us open wide our hearts. It is joy which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing.

SAINT KATHARINE DREXEL