Welcome, and may our Lord and Savior, Jesus be with you and bless you as you grow in grace and peace.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE MOVEMENT AND HAVE NOT MADE A WEEKEND-- we thank you for visiting our web site. A good starting point is to read the publication: “Cursillo, What Is It?” or ask any Cursillista you know for information. Any active Cursillista can provide a copy of the above publication or if that does not work, email me (click here) Edward Wissel and I will get a copy to you as soon as possible

Cursillistas--For those who are already Cursillistas, I offer my thanks for your confidence in me and my promise to do my best as your Cursillo Chair for the Cursillo Movement in the Catholic Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama.

After less than one month on the job, I am daunted, impressed, encouraged, and thankful about the immense task I have agreed to take on. I am DAUNTED by the immensity of the responsibilities, IMPRESSED by the wealth of information I have to draw upon and the quality of work performed by my predecessors both here and elsewhere, ENCOURAGED by all the support and help from my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and THANKFUL for the help our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has given me as I struggle to do the best job I can.

To my immediate predecessor, I offer my profound gratitude for orchestrating the change to the conduct of Cursillo Weekends in our Diocese. The job Melinda McNamee and her team did in the move to a new list of Rollos was nothing less than phenomenal. Melinda also spearheaded a long overdue revamping of the process for selecting Cursillo Teams. Teams are now comprised of Cursillistas who are living the Cursillo Method; all are grouping and attending Ultreya regularly. Having served on the last two men’s weekends with these new Rollos and these new requirements for team participation, I can honestly say the changes we have made have had a positive impact for the weekend itself and the fourth day that follows. Our weekend Rollos have been restored to the originals begun in Majorca Spain in the 1940’s and our teams are now comprised exclusively of authentic Cursillistas.

As to the future, we in the Diocese of Birmingham still have some ways to go. Both World Wide and National Cursillo discuss three aspects of the Fourth Day: Group Reunion, Ultreya, and School of Leaders (SOL). We have come a long way in stressing the importance of the first two aspects; Group Reunion and Ultreya, but we have just begun to plumb the richness and criticality of SOL. SOL is the place where we, as Cursillista leaders, learn more about our roles as leaders and fine tune the future focus of the Cursillo Movement in our diocese.

The bottom line is that we need to progress to a SOL that will result in our team members further maturing from authentic Cursillistas to authentic Cursillista leaders. We will be discussing how we do this and asking you, my fellow Cursillistas, for help in this regard. CHANGE is not fun and no one really likes it, but we as Cursillistas, know that progress on our Fourth Days involve continuing change. Our movement also needs to change. Your urgently desired prayerful support in this undertaking will be lovingly appreciated and will (with the help of God) allow us to succeed.

For now, I ask for your prayers for the Cursillo Movement, for your Secretariat, and for your Cursillo Chair.

God Bless and De Colores!

Ed Wissel
Cursillo Chair