Retired Priests Recall

“folklore”of Church of San José for Newer Priests

LifetimeNo. 1

Page 4

LifetimeNo. 1

Page 5

“what youput into a school

is what youwill get out of it.”

- Monsignor Michael Mitchell

By reducing all that the day had presented down to a simple proverb, who else but our very own folklorist,

Monsignor Michael Mitchell, could close so fittingly a day filled with stories, legends and lessons handed on from our retired to our recently ordained priests of San José?

What Monsignor Mitchell was suggesting, by applying wisdom from his own life’s ministry, is that what we will get out of priesthood depends largely on what we are willing to put into it.

Meant as an encouragement to the newer priests for reading and studying often and ongoing throughout their lives, Mitchell’s words were also aptly chosen to describe the basic lesson to carry away from the day’s activity of telling and listening to the “oral tradition” of the Church of San José. The day was planned for

the 15 newer priests who are in their first five years of ordained ministry as part of their annual set of four Peer Support Group Meetings. Joining them were some of the retired priests of our diocese: Msgrs. Joe Milani, Mike Mitchell and Terry Sullivan, and Frs. Tim Kidney, Tom Shea and Paul Weisbeck.

Also present were Bishop PJ McGrath and Fr. Richard Hilliard, who facilitated the storytelling, woven by the retired clergy in tribute to the priests, religious and lay leaders whose

LifetimeNo. 1

Page 6

ministries shaped and eventually founded the new diocese.

Church of the Ascension in Saratoga was the venue for the gathering of our retired priests with our priests ordained under five years last October 29.

Santa Clara County was described by the retired priests by how it was known long before a diocese was created to serve the Catholic population, “The Valley of the Heart’s Delight.” The name derived from the rich soil which gave birth for decades to fruit orchards as far as the eye could see. The agricultural setting and its economy, of course, thrived in this valley not only in the orchards, but also in the many canneries from Sunnyvale to Gilroy, later yielding to the aerospace industry (notably around Moffett Field) and, in recent decades, to the growth of the high tech industry following the invention of the microchip by Hewlitt and Packard in the historical Palo Alto garage.

Some of our retired priests began their priestly ministry while the local economy changed from the people’s reliance upon the wealth of the soil for their livelihood to the fortunes acquired from the sales of properties owned by farmers, ranchers and orchardists, to an even richer economy found in the developing industries now synonymous with “Silicon Valley.”

Growth, rapid growth, and even exponential growth changed church ministry in the valley. Monsignor Terry Sullivan noted that in his first assignment as a priest to St. Justin’s Parish in Santa Clara, he witnessed the dramatic increase in numbers of children attending catechism classes from a few hundred to nearly 1500. “This required a new response to the need for catechists to teach the additional classes of students. Religious communities such as the Sisters of the Holy Family could not meet the need to provide more teachers, even from their large number of sisters in the 1950’s.”

“We turned to the laity,” Sullivan added, “and they responded generously in volunteer service to the church.” It would not be long before Monsignor Sullivan would be tapped by then Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken to serve as the Director of Religious Education for Santa Clara County.

The retired priests were unanimous in their contention that the Archdiocesan office in San Francisco was almost oblivious to what was occurring in Santa Clara county, so “distant”

was the divide where Menlo Park and Palo Alto met. Both Monsignor Mitchell and Monsignor Joe Milani described the tasks given to new pastors in this county. “Any pastor assigned to establish a new parish down here was given 10 acres of land to build upon and a note for the debt to the Archdiocese for the cost of the 10 acres!” Monsignor Milani said.

Father Paul Weisbeck supported this claim when he described the construction of the first hall at Church of the Ascension in Saratoga. “It wasn’t until one of the San Francisco Chancery staff passed by Ascension on Prospect Avenue in route to another destination that the Archdiocesan Office even learned about the building!” said Father Weisbeck.

It was Archbishop John Quinn who would eventually recognize the need to create a diocese of its own for Santa Clara County. When his auxiliary bishop, Bishop Pierre DuMaine, was announced as the first bishop of the new diocese in January 1981, both bishops allowed priests then assigned to the four counties of the archdiocese to move to either side of the Menlo Park-Palo Alto boundary, if they would choose, before the public ceremony of creation of the Diocese of San Jose on March 18-19, 1981. Fr. Weisbeck was one of the eleven priests who moved southward. “It was almost an equal split,” Father Weisbeck noted, given that thirteen priests moved northward retaining ministry for the archdiocese.

“If it weren’t for Pierre DuMaine, I wouldn’t be a priest of San José,” said Father Tom Shea. He had met then-Monsignor DuMaine years earlier (when Shea was still a Maryknoll priest) in the family home of brothers Monsignor Ben Cummins and Bishop-to-be John Cummins of Oakland when the former Cummins was the Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese and DuMaine was his assistant. “When I decided to leave Maryknoll many years later, I turned to Bishop DuMaine because he had demonstrated a very keen intelligence and like-ability,” Shea said. “He welcomed me to the new diocese as one of his priests.”

After the diocese was created, Bishop Pierre DuMaine would often refer to Monsignor John Healy, founding Pastor of St. Christopher Church, as the de facto “First Bishop of San José.” “That’s because he was the longstanding Dean of Santa Clara County,” Monsignor Milani noted, adding, “and a Dean had almost unrestricted power in his territory.”

LifetimeNo. 1

Page 7

are we notformed,

as notes of music are,for one another,

though dissimilar?~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Father Shea and Father Tim Kidney have the distinction of having served as missionaries to foreign lands. Father Kidney, having once served in Africa for the Sulpicians, offered himself to Bishop McGrath when the bishop was asked by the Bishop of Montego Bay, Jamaica to provide him with priests to assist him in his diocese. “Visits from bishops of foreign lands are rather regular,” Bishop McGrath said. “However, when this bishop visited me for the second time he was not seeking financial aid but, rather, one of our priests!”

Bishop McGrath then turned to the Maryknoll Fathers to assist him in meeting this request by their providing financial support for a priest of San José should the bishop find one he could send. What resulted was the partnership of our diocese with the Maryknoll Fathers in answer to the need in Jamaica. Father Robert Brocato is now on mission to Montego Bay. With Father Steven Brown’s years as an Associate with the Maryknollers in Africa, there have been four

diocesan priests of San José who have served in missionary service to other lands.

It was Bishop DuMaine who turned to the Office of Education in San Francisco for his selection of Sister Mary Claude Power, PBVM, to serve as the first Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of San José. “BishopDuMaine set the precedent for many dioceses by selecting women for administrative roles previously reserved to men, especially to priests,” observed Monsignor Mitchell.

When the priests had reconvened after lunch, they listened to a reading of the Necrology of Priests of the Diocese of San José called aloud by Monsignor Joe Milani. As each name was announced, the retired priests retold some legends or achievements by which each deceased priest has been remembered. Among

the comments and memories shared were these bits of tribute, lore and trivia:

• Fr. Nicholas Farana, founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection, included images of the parish mascot (a turtle) and his own dog in the stained glass windows behind the sanctuary in the current church, shaped like a fish, but only recognizable when viewed from aircraft above!

• Msgr. John Sweeny, pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church, intended to have a 100-ft statue of the Blessed Mother instead of the 30-ft statue now seen from US101 at Great America Parkway.

• “Matthew Court,” behind the St. Julie Billiart Church property off Cottle Road, is named for the founding pastor, Fr. Matthew Sullivan, the first of our priests to have the title of “Vicar for Clergy,” and who died at the altar while celebrating daily mass in St. William Church. Msgr. Francis Cottrell, pastor of St. Nicholas Church, was summoned to St. William’s to complete the celebration of Mass.

• Fr. Thomas Bettencourt’s family owned the dairy on the property adjoining Oak Hill Cemetery along Curtner Avenue on what is now known as San José’s Communications Hill. It was Fr. Bettencourt who announced to the morning Mass attendees at St. Mary’s, Los Gatos, news of the death of Fr. Robert Essig, pastor of nearby St. Frances Cabrini Church. When Fr. James “Hap” Spooncer, founding pastor of St. Simon Church and best friend of Fr. Essig, learned of this death later that morning, he immediately telephoned St. Frances Cabrini to ask why he had not been informed directlyabout Fr. Essig’s death. The parish secretary was stunned, and handed the phone to the man standing beside her...Fr. Essig! Apparently the caller who had alerted Fr. Bettencourt was gravely mistaken and known to other local priests as a lunatic, of sorts. If only Fr. Bettencourt had known!

• St. Mary’s in Los Gatos was the site of the tragic death of Fr. Henri Tomei, a French-born priest of the Archdiocese of Marseilles who had sought asylum in the United States following WW II. He had established two orphanages for children whose parents had been killed in the war, and he became and outspoken opponent of the involvement of France in the War. He came to San Francisco when he learned that he was on the French “hit list” because of his public views. Archbishop McGucken assigned

LifetimeNo. 1

Page 8

ONE CAN’T RETIRE EXPERIENCE.

ONE MUST USE IT.

- Bernard Baruch

him to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Redwood City because the pastor was French-speaking. He served there with Fr. Robert Moran and Monsignor Michael Mitchell. It was at Mt. Carmel that Fr. Richard Hilliard was a part of Fr. Tomei’s “Boys Choir.” A few years later Fr. Tomei was transferred to Los Gatos because in the town was a “French Club.” On All Souls Day in 1972, Fr. Tomei was at the dining room table for lunch with the pastor, Fr. Richard Howley, when the doorbell rang and the man at the door asked to have a priest hear his confession. It was Fr. Howley’s “duty day,” but because he was still eating and Fr. Tomei had already finished his lunch, Fr. Tomei insisted that he would go to the church to hear the man’s confession. After more than an hour, Fr. Tomei was found dead in his confessional, having been stabbed multiple times. News of this murder was reported in newspapers coast- to-coast and on national radio and television broadcasts. His assailant, the man who had requested the confession, was eventually found guilty of this and other murders in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and remains imprisoned today. A shrine in Fr. Tomei’s memory is built to replace the confessional in St. Mary’s Church for this Martyr of Santa Clara County.

• Fr. Leonard Bose, pastor of St. Lucy Church in Campbell, was a “Ham radio operator” by avocation! Wikipedia provides this description: “Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called “hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public services, recreation and self-training. The term amateur is used to differentiate it from commercial and professional two-way radio services.

• Fr. Maurice Shea, first Judicial Vicar for the diocese, is remembered for his unique filing system, which everyone agreed only he understood. Rather than use filing cabinets, Fr. Shea would stack files all over his desk, on the floor, on bookshelves...wherever he found space

in his office. It did not serve him well, however, as it gave the appearance that nothing of his was organized, planned, or on schedule, especially the many annulment cases awaiting notification to men and women seeking to validate their existing marriages in the Church!

• Fr. Leo Rooney, who served both St. Justin and St. Joseph of Cupertino Churches as Pastor, is remembered each year at the Fall Clergy Recreation Day. His leadership in establishing the Clergy Chemical Dependency Support Group and his hospitality in hosting the d inner which fo l lows the annual Gol f Tournament were the reasons for Father Paul Weisbeck to name the tournament in his honor.

• Monsignor Mateo Sheedy, beloved Pastor of Sacred Heart Church in San José, will be remembered as a community organizer and lifelong champion of the rights of farmworkers here and throughout the central valley of California. Those who studied with him during his seminary training knew him as “Matt,” a classmate from Gilroy. But he was so identified by his ministry among the immigrants from Mexico and throughout Central America that he became not “Father Matt,” but “Father Mateo.”

Like many musical instruments introduced into a concert, each of the retired priests added his voice to the telling of stories throughout the day. A trumpet blast here and a roll of drums there, a somber solo horn once or twice, and a piper’s flute added to encourage the making of future stories that will mark our collective history as priests serving the Santa Clara Valley.

Before their departures, the retired priests began to mention the priests who have served this valley who also have brothers who were ordained as priests. Their mention led to the observation that there have also been many uncle-and-nephew relationships among our own priests, as well! Here is a list of those priests who have served in Santa Clara Valley and who have in their families brothers or uncles who are also priests:

LifetimeNo. 1

Page 9

Is there an omission from this listing? Let us know!Please contact Fr. Richard Hilliard: rhilliard@dsj.org

UNCLES and their NEPHEWS

◆ The late Fr. John Dermody (Pastor Emeritus of Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Palo Alto) and Most Rev. Patrick J. McGrath (second Bishop of San José)◆ The late Fr. John Walsh (priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco) and Msgr. James Walsh (Pastor Emeritus of St. Christopher Church)◆ The late Fr. Nicholas Farana (Pastor Emeritus of Church of the Resurrection) and Fr. Mario Farana (priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco; Pastor of St. Paul Church, San Francisco)◆ The late Fr. Joseph Dondero, SJ and Msgr. John Sandersfeld (Pastor Emeritus of St. Francis of Assisi Church)◆ The late Fr. Patrick Keane (priest of the Arch-diocese of San Francisco, Pastor of St. Cyprian Church at time of creation of diocese) and Fr. Kevin Joyce (Pastor of St. Lucy Church)◆ Fr. George Thomas (retired priest of the Arch-diocese of San Francisco) and Fr. Gary Thomas (Pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Saratoga)◆ The late Msgr. José Suarez (retired, last serving St. Julie Billiart Church) and Fr. Randy Valenton (serving St. Thomas Aquinas Church)

◆ Fr. Norman Segovia (Pastor of St. John the Baptist Church) and Fr. Normandy “Chaddy” Segovia (serving St. Francis of Assisi Church)

◆ The late Most Rev. Victorino Ligot (First Bishop of San Fernando de la Union, P.I.) and the Very Reverend Andres Ligot (Judicial Vicar)

◆ The late Fr. Raymond G. Kenny (Pastor of St. Martin Church, Sunnyvale) and Fr. Raymond Kenny (Pastor Emeritus, Church of Santa Teresa)

and in the making … “FATHER & SON” ➜

“BROTHER PRIESTS”

◆ Fr. Raymond Maher (final pastor of St. Aloysius Church, Palo Alto) and the late Most Rev. Leo Maher (Bishop Emeritus of San Diego)

◆ The late Msgr. John Sweeny (Pastor Emeritus of Our Lady of Peace Church) and the late Fr. Leo Sweeny (priest of Diocese of Stockton)

◆ Fr. Abel López (retired) and the late Fr. Fausto López (both priests of Diocese of San José)

◆ Fr. Michael Gazzingan (serving St. Maria Goretti Church) and Fr. Mark Gazzingan (serving St. Christopher Church)

◆ Fr. Roberto Rojas (Pastor of St. Joseph Church, Mountain View) and Fr. Hugo Rojas (serving St. Mary Church, Gilroy)

◆ Fr. John Poncini (Director of Vocations and Seminarians) and Fr. Lawrence Poncini, OCD (serving the Diocese of Bend)

◆ Fr. Tito Jesus Cartagenas (serving Holy Family Church) and Fr. Aloysius Lopez Cartagenas (priest of Diocese of Tagbilaran in Bohol, P.I.)

◆ The late Msgr. J. Norman Allen (first Vicar General and Pastor of St. Christopher Church) and the late Fr. Edward R. “Lefty” Allen (priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco; resided at St. Joseph Church, Mountain View in retirement)

◆ The twin brothers, both Jesuits, Fr. Joseph Geary and Fr. John Geary, made their marks on the Valley as Sunday suppliers in many parishes while serving the students at Bellarmine College Preparatory as teachers of Latin, Greek and church history.

◆ Deacon Philip Flowers (St. Catherine Church) and Thomas Flowers, SJ (Jesuit Scholastic)

BEGINS ON PAGE 10...GUESS WHERE IT ENDS!

TRIVIA CONTEST

trivia contestDIOCESE OF SAN JOSÉ IN CALIFORNIA

LifetimeNo. 1

Page 10

CONTEST RULESAn entry will be considered valid only if submitted by a priest or deacon of the Diocese of San José in California, ordained before January 1, 2011, to: rhilliard@dsj.org. Entries received before March 1, 2011 shall be considered invalid. All entries must be received by the end of the day, March 25, 2011.

Only entries scoring 100 points or more will be eligible. The entrant for The Contest will check his own answers against the answers provided beginning on page 17 of this issue. The answers listed beginning on page 17 shall be considered the only acceptable and correct answers for the purposes of this Contest. Debate over the accuracy of the answers found beginning on page 17 will disqualify the entrant and the entry. Entrants will score their entries according to the instructions provided with the answers beginning on page 17.

shall reach the Contest Finals. Of these, the Five with the highest scores will be declared the Contest’s Winners and receive THE GRAND PRIZE, a RESERVED SEAT of his choosing for his SOLE AND SOUL’S USE throughout the Clergy Study Week 2011, in the Chapel of St. Francis Retreat, San Juan Bautista. Winners will not be announced to the general public, but only to the assembled clergy, at the start of the Study Week, Monday, May 9, at 11:00AM. There is no monetary value, equivalent, or substitute for the prizes as described. (Did you expect otherwise?)

ENTRANTS ARE TO RECORD THEIR ANSWERS and SUBMIT both their ANSWER SHEETS and their EARNED SCORES TALLIED to: rhilliard@dsj.org

All Entries Accepted with Eligible Scores

RECORD YOUR ANSWERS. SUBMIT ANSWER SHEET AFTER SCORING...IF YOUR SCORE QUALIFIES AS A POSSIBLE WINNER!

1. Which religious community of women was the very first to settle and teach in Santa Clara County?2. Which religious community purchased the property upon which had been the first College of the Pacific campus?3. Name the (arch)dioceses of which all or portions of the territory known as Santa Clara County were a part before becoming the Diocese of San José.4. List the succession of Vicars for Clergy for the Diocese of San José.5. Name at least three women, other than Sister Mary Claude Power, PBVM, to serve as heads of diocesan offices or agencies appointed by Bishop Pierre DuMaine during the earliest years of the Diocese of San José.6. Fill in the concluding blank: When Bishop McGrath accompanied Bishop DuMaine to Rome for the 1989 “ad limina” visit, Pope John Paul II inquired, “Does this mean that in Santa Clara County there are no more________________?”7. Name the private Catholic elementary schools established since the creation of the Diocese of San José?8. Name the Vietnamese priest already serving in Santa Clara County at the time of the creation of the diocese.9. What major criterion prevailed against St. Joseph Church from being named the first cathedral of the new Diocese of San José in 1981?10. To whom is attributed the design of the circular altar in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph?11. Name the two saints whose images are found in the Clergy Section of Gate of Heaven Cemetery. 12. Name the first lay male to serve as head of a diocesan department, his immediate lay female successor, and their current positions.13. Who was the first Vicar General for the new diocese?... and name the parish at which he served as Pastor while fulfilling his duties as Vicar General.14. Name the most recent priests of San José to be named to the Papal household.15. True or False: There are only 15 questions to this Trivia Contest.

trivia contestDIOCESE OF SAN JOSÉ IN CALIFORNIA

THE QUESTIONS

THE ANSWERS START ON PAGE 17!Lifetime

No. 1Page 11