It’s safe to say that all church communities have their ups and downs, but Nativity Parish in Washington, D.C., celebrated that in a special way in August 2025, as Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop emeritus of Washington, blessed the long-awaited new elevator at the church.
At the time, Bettie Kennedy – a longtime parishioner who served as the project manager of the elevator installation – noted how it had been heartbreaking seeing elderly parishioners struggle up the church’s steps. “They can ride in style in our new lift and elevator,” she said.
During the blessing, Cardinal Gregory said, “We are here to bless an elevator and lift our spirits and hearts in hope,” and he encouraged people to “strive to imitate Christ who descended to earth and likewise ascended to heaven.”
That elevator blessing coincided with the parish’s year-long 125th anniversary celebration, which included a special Mass celebrated by Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, on Feb. 22.
In interviews, longtime and new Nativity parishioners reflected on the legacy of faith of the parish that was founded in 1900 in Washington’s Brightwood neighborhood.
Doris Crosson – a parishioner for more than 40 years who is retired after working as a nutrition coordinator for maternal and child health in the District of Columbia – has been a member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas at Nativity Parish, and she co-chaired the committee that produced the parish’s centennial book. Her late husband Everett, who died in 2021, had been a federal worker with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and he worked with fellow parishioners for years to make the church accessible.
“That was an important thing to him,” she said. When the elevator was dedicated last year, “I was just thrilled,” Doris Crosson said, adding, “it just means a lot. We have so many steps.”
A diverse parish, united in faith
In an interview about the parish’s anniversary, Bettie Kennedy praised the spirit of the Nativity community, saying “Everybody just gets along. Everybody feels welcome and feels the warmth of other parishioners.”
Bettie Kennedy, who first joined Nativity Parish in 1982 and returned there in the late 1990s, is a retired corporate lawyer and lives in Great Falls, Virginia. Ove the years, she has co-chaired the parish’s Finance Council and participated in prayer groups and with the Catholic Daughters there. She also helped redecorate the rectory, and now she is chairing a committee that is producing a 125th anniversary commemorative book for Nativity Parish.
She praised the diversity of Nativity’s parishioners. The parish’s founders included German and Irish Catholic families. In the 1960s, the parish became home to many Black Catholics, and in recent years, a growing number of Hispanic Catholics have joined the parish.
Two longtime parishioners interviewed before the anniversary Mass reflected on what the parish has meant to their lives.
Evonne McDaniel was a member of the Nativity Parish during the 1960s, and returned in 1984. Her husband had died of a heart attack in 1970, and she was raising their daughter. She retired five years ago after working as a management analyst with the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
“There were so many opportunities for me to grow in my faith,” said McDaniel, who now participates in the Neocatechumenal Way at the parish. “It’s a catechesis beyond Confirmation… That was very important to me. I was working as a widow. There were so many demands (on me), I felt like I was overwhelmed.”
The Neocatechumenal Way is a worldwide Catholic movement dedicated to adult and family faith formation.
“I made up my mind the day I retired, that I would come to daily Mass. This is my neighborhood. I walk to Mass every day,” said McDaniel, adding that she offers prayers of thanks to God, because “He has done so much for me.”
Jocelyn A. Daughtry, a retired federal government agent who is a fourth generation Washingtonian, has been a member of Nativity parish since 1964, and compared it to a “big family.”
Over the years, Daughtry has served as the vice chair of Nativity’s parish council, as a Eucharistic minister, an usher, a sacristan and lector, and as the vice prefect of the Sodality at the parish. Her motto, she said, is “in order to receive, you’ve got to give.” She added that her son – a graduate of Nativity School – knows that, and he used to help out at the parish’s food pantry.
She also serves as a volunteer coordinator with AARP DC, working with new volunteers who will assist the city’s senior citizens. “We’ve got to watch out and care for our seniors,” she said.
Summarizing her own volunteer service, Daughtry said it’s a matter of “just giving back, and making sure everyone is okay.”
This past year, Daughtry was among parish lay leaders who took part in consultation meetings with Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, helping to identify challenges and opportunities that the Catholic Church is facing in the Archdiocese of Washington.
Speaking about her own parish, Daughtry expressed a concern raised by many of the parish lay leaders during the consultations. “We need younger folk… We lose our children after Confirmation. We need to keep them in the parish,” she said.
Parishioners and friends
Another longtime Nativity parishioner, Helena S. Valentine, spoke about what spurred her family to join the parish in 1968, when her husband Fred Valentine was an outfielder for the Washington Senators.
“I visited a lot of churches. It was really like a family, people were really friendly,” she said.
Helena Valentine worked as the director of Teen Life Choices, a program of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington. After his ballplaying career, Fred Valentine, who died in 2022, worked as the vice president of a construction company. Their three children attended Nativity School and one of them went to St. Ann’s before they graduated from Gonzaga College High School and Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School.
Over the years, Helena Valentine helped organize Communion breakfasts and bazaars at Nativity Parish, and she chaired the education committee and participated in the Catholic Daughters and Sodality there. When Pope St. John Paul II landed in a helicopter on the National Mall during his 1979 papal visit to Washington, Fred and Helena Valentine were part of the entourage welcoming him.
In a telephone interview, Catherine Borris – who has been a Nativity parishioner since 1965 – noted that she and Helena Valentine “have been friends all these years,” after they met while their children were attending Nativity School.
Catherine Borris worked as a social worker for the District of Columbia, and her husband Frank, who died five years ago, worked with the District government in environmental services. Four of their five children graduated from Nativity School.
Over the years, she and her husband volunteered with Nativity’s Pre-Cana program for engaged couples. They were among the first Eucharistic ministers at their church, and they helped bring Communion to the elderly and sick in the parish. Frank Borris helped teach C.C.D. for 25 years at the parish, while Catherine Borris served as a chair of Nativity Parish’s centennial committee and helped with the Children’s Liturgy of the Word program there.
“I volunteered for whatever they needed me for,” she said.
Her husband was from New Orleans, and the couple introduced an annual Mardi Gras celebration there featuring traditional food like jambalaya, hot sausage, red beans and rice, and shrimp. “We just wanted to do something different,” she said.
The Knights of Columbus at Nativity Parish continue another dining tradition there, what they call the “Fryday Knight Fish Fry” on Fridays during Lent.
Catherine Borris also noted that “I was one of the first Blacks to be in the Sodality” at the parish, and she added, “I was on the parish council, and I made a lot of noise, anything I thought we should be doing in the school or in the church… I was not a troublemaker. Sometimes you need to bring up things.”
Reflecting on her six decades at Nativity Parish, Catherine Borris said, “Nativity is my home, my home church… This is where God wanted me to be.” Noting all the friends that she has met there over the years, she added, “I never left. I stayed, and I still love Nativity.”
Living the legacy every day
At the reception following the parish’s 125th anniversary Mass, Cheryl Jackson spoke about her experiences there. She noted that her family joined Nativity Parish in 1968 after moving to the area, and she and her two brothers graduated from Nativity School and participated in the parish’s Teen Club.
“We grew not only in faith, but in our understanding of service,” she said, noting that she later sent her son and daughter to Nativity School, where they received “the same foundation of faith.”
Nativity School opened in 1925 and was originally staffed by the Franciscan Sisters of Glen Riddle, Pennsylvania. The school closed in 2007.
Cheryl Jackson – who graduated 50 years ago from Nativity School in 1976 – noted that she and her classmates stay in touch. “We are still friends and get together every year,” she said.
Jackson emphasized that Nativity Parish and School produced generations of faithful people. “Legacy is something that we not only celebrate, but we live every day,” she said.
In an interview at the reception, Peter Gervais – a Nativity parishioner for 30 years who works as the director of operations at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington – noted that his twin sons, Simon and Andrew, grew up in the parish.
Gervais praised the “vibrancy of all the different communities” at Nativity Parish. “We all get together. The Easter Vigil is phenomenal,” he said.
Teens’ perspective
Also interviewed at the reception were Valeria Machado-Alfaro and Julissa Huezo, two teenagers who are members of Nativity Parish and have family roots in El Salvador.
Valeria, a senior at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Maryland, is interested in becoming a nurse, and she volunteers as an usher at the parish’s Spanish-language Mass. Julissa, a freshman at Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, volunteers as an altar server at Nativity Church, and she is interested in a career in marine biology. Both youth participate in the Neocatechumenal Way at the parish.
Noting how the English- and Spanish-speaking parishioners work together on behalf of the parish, Valeria said, “Instead of being separate, we’re a community that helps each other.”
Julissa added, “No one’s left behind” there.
Valeria said one hope that she has for the parish is “to see many more youth in church. Many of us are struggling to find God. We’re always being influenced by social media to follow a trend.”
In order to connect with young people, Valeria recommended that members of the Catholic Church should “invite youth without judging them.”
Julissa said her faith has deepened at Nativity Parish. “The priests really try to get you involved in something. They make you feel like you’re being seen. You feel like the Lord is bringing you closer to the Church and to Him.”
‘A grace within the parish’
Two other members of the Hispanic community at Nativity – Oscar Del Valle and his daughter, Martha Del Valle, also praised the spirit of the parish.
“The church is warm and welcoming. The communities work together to show the love of Christ,” said Oscar Del Valle, who spoke in Spanish that was translated by his daughter.
The auto body repair worker is also a leader in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal at the parish, which offers prayer groups and Bible study classes. “It’s kind of a grace within the parish. What the Charismatic Renewal looks to do is to help people have that one-on-one connection with God,” he said.
Martha Del Valle, a dental hygienist who sings in the choir at the Spanish language Masses, said, “It’s a privilege to be a part of the choir, to worship God through music and singing.”
Nativity Parish “is a welcoming community,” she said, adding, “No matter your race or ethnicity, we can all come together and worship Christ as a community.”
At home in Nativity Parish
One of the newest members of Nativity Parish, Nicole Martin, became Catholic at the Easter Vigil there in 2025. Martin, who was Lutheran, now works as the gift shop manager at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington.
Becoming Catholic and joining Nativity Parish “meant everything to me,” Martin said, adding, “I live two blocks away from here.”
She praised the community there, saying she has “felt very welcome” at her new parish home, and she enjoys the Gospel Choir’s music at the 10 a.m. Masses on Sundays.
Her newfound faith “changed my life. The closer you get to God, life’s just better,” Martin said.
(This article includes reporting by the Catholic Standard’s Richard Szczepanowski about Nativity Parish’s 2025 dedication of its new elevator and lift.)
Link to related article:
Nativity Parish celebrates its 125th anniversary as a family of faith in Washington's Brightwood neighborhood
