Welcome!

Welcome to our Web site. It is now more than 8 years since beginning my ministry with this parish. I wish you all God's blessings as I continue my journey of faith with the people of our neighboring cluster at St. Joseph Church.

I have to tell you what a happy place this has been for me to minister, not without its challenges, but a place full of inclusiveness and joy. By my count, parishioners worship here from at least fifteen suburban locations for the sake of our mission of worship and deed. Our parish community is actively and prayerfully engaged in social outreach, commitment to the poor and openness to immigrants and refugees newly arrived from Latin America, Africa and Asia, in addition to our long time parishioners from the neighborhood and throughout the city. We are a multi-lingual and multi-cultural community serving the needs of the People of God, and our parish is an anchor for the City of Portland in which we are located.

It has become clear to me since I arrived here that an inner-city parish such as this would not survive (and indeed prosper) without the commitment of folks from other parts of Portland and its suburban towns and cities. Coming together with a common mission, our parish (because of its location) can host a Food Pantry, Clothing Bank, retreat programs and various anonymous groups to overcome addictions, and be a place of new hope and new beginnings for individuals and families from around the world.

The Sacred Heart / St. Dominic parish community is very diverse. We celebrate the Eucharist in two languages, English and Spanish and occasionally also in French. If you visit with us at our coffee hours after Mass, and various other social events that we host, you can meet parishioners from just about every continent of the world. We are Irish-Americans, Franco-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Anglo-Americans. We are refugees and asylum-seekers. We are long-time citizens and potential ones. We are rich and poor. We are professionals and laborers. We come together to relish each other's common faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ. As Christ is in solidarity with us, we are in solidarity with each other.

While we have great outreach programs, we also work at nurturing our own spiritual programs through Religious Education for both adults and children and those inquiring about our Catholic faith. We have ministries to the elderly, and our musical program to enhance our Liturgy of Sacred Worship is first rate, innovative and creative, and strives to include the cultures of our constituent members. We celebrate the only Spanish Mass in the Portland area. Some of our Liturgies are multi-lingual to reflect the diversity of our parishioners for special occasions. This Web site is a great resource for learning about the parish, the Diocese of Portland, the Jesuits, the Vatican, and our Catholic faith. It is a growing and interactive site, multi-lingual and multi-cultural to reflect our mission and its constituents.

Our worship space is a wonderful neo-classical church. Our stained glass windows tell the great story of Christ's life as related through the Gospels. Stations of the Cross are wonderful occasions of contemplating Jesus' last days for us. A visit to our church can provide you with moments of contemplation of what our ancestors in faith experienced in prayer and reflection. If you want to experience the highlights of the Gospels, you can see them in glass and relief in our church. Most of all, we hope that you will come and worship with us and meet the living God celebrated in Word and Sacrament.

Whether you are a parishioner, an occasional visitor or have an interest in our mission of reaching out to the poor of the inner city and our work of melding together the rich and the poor, we invite you to make contributions to make an already vibrant parish even more so. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, expressed that we should pray as if all depends on God and that we should work as if all depends on ourselves. I think that this formula is helpful to our mission. We pray hard and work hard to make our parish a viable place. St. Benedict, in his rule to his monks, tells them that when the guest comes, Christ comes. We are a very welcoming place and invite you to join us in worship and in our commitment to newcomers to our city and country.

I say all of this to tell you of our work here at Sacred Heart / St. Dominic and our mission. I find our mission exciting and creative and so wonderfully challenging. I hope you will join us in that mission.

Sincerely in Christ,

(Rev) Richard-D. Bertrand, S.J.

Parochial Vicar in the neighboring Deering Cluster of Portland, Maine, and providing Hispanic, African and Franco-American services as needed at Sacred Heart / St. Dominic Parish

• Fr. Louis J. Phillips
  Pastor and Administrator
• Fr. Michael Seavey
  Parochial Vicar
• Fr. Greg Dube Parochial vicar
• Fr. Lawrence Conley (retired) Parochial Vicar
• Fr. Paul Marquis
  Hospital Chaplain
  Parochial Vicar
• Sr. Patricia Pora Hispanic Ministries
• Fr. Philip Tracy (retired) Hispanic Ministries
• Fr. Richard Bertrand, S.J., Hispanic and African ministries, part-time

Hispanic Ministry

• Fr. Phillip Tracy
• Fr. Richard-D. Bertrand, S.J.
• Sr. Patricia Pora, RSM