package MyCGIApp;
use CGI::Application::ValidateRM;
use strict;
use vars qw( $VERSION);
$VERSION     = 1.00;
use base qw(CGI::Application);


sub cgiapp_init {
   my $self = shift;

  #######################
  package G;
  use Config::General;
  use vars qw( %CF );
  %G::CF = ParseConfig("../mymodules/config.dat");

... more stuff would be here (perhaps connecting to the DB) ...

}  # end MyCGIApp.pm

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

package CDNR;
use base MyCGIApp;  # Extending the class

... runmodes, etc, etc, ...
  
in one of them:
  $t->param(
        'Header'        =>      "My Header",
        'HeaderText'    =>      "$G::CF{headertext}",
           );