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June 6, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 11Oakland,
CA
Simplicity, advocacy mark ministry of retiring priest
Father John Fernandes, who is retiring this month as
pastor at St. Lawrence O’Toole-St. Cyril Parish in Oakland, is known
as much for his humility as for his devotion to service.
The priest’s recent reluctance to do an interview with The Voice
about his retirement, for example, isn’t out of character, noted
Father Michael Norkett, pastor at neighboring St. Paschal Parish. Once
when Father Fernandes arrived at a parish to start his new assignment,
he was taken to the pastor’s suite to settle in. But he refused
the more spacious quarters, urged another priest to take the rooms, and
opted for a smaller living space.
“He is very unpretentious,” Father Norkett said. “He
didn’t live in the pastor’s suite. He just lived in a little
room in the back. He needed just a few things – period.”
Father Fernandes, who turned 65 last month, is retiring from active ministry
because of long-existing health problems.
But health concerns have never slowed the priest’s passion for social
justice. “He is very conscious of the poor and downtrodden,”
Father Norkett said.
That commitment to the poor was demonstrated long before he began studying
for the priesthood. After a four-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps,
Father Fernandes signed up with the Peace Corps and spent two years serving
as a volunteer in Jamaica.
As a priest he again answered the call to do missionary work. In 1985,
eight years after his ordination he left his post as administrator at
Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Union City and went to Grenada in the
West Indies to serve poor communities there. At the time, he said he requested
the assignment “after five years of discernment with the help of
a spiritual director and contact with the Maryknoll Mission program.”
When he returned to the diocese, he was assigned as parochial vicar at
Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Brentwood and pastoral administrator
at St. Anne in Byron. The following year he was appointed pastor of St.
Peter Martyr Parish in Pittsburg, a post he held until 1991 when he was
named administrator at St. Cyril Parish in Oakland. Later he was pastor
at St. Paschal and administrator at St. Benedict in Oakland.
After his appointment as pastor at St. Lawrence O’Toole, he helped
the community develop a collaborative relationship with St. Cyril that
eventually resulted in a merger of the two parishes in 2001.
During a rare interview that year, Father Fernandes told The Voice that
he preferred to be called a parish priest rather than pastor or administrator.
He said he wasn’t interested in showing parishioners “who’s
the boss.” Rather he wanted to nurture a spirit of cooperation within
the congregation where everyone would feel empowered to take on an active
role in parish life.
“In our deanery John was pastor of three parishes,” said Father
Jay Matthews, pastor at St. Benedict Parish. He described the priest’s
style of ministry as “refreshing” and personable. Not only
did he walk with people in faith and in love, he also shared his love
for social justice with them, Father Matthews said.
Father Fernandes “gave them an awakening of the need to be very
just, to be very fair, to be very kind, and to be very loving to their
neighbors,” he added. He did this “in his own very wonderful
way. He is going to be very deeply missed.”
(Overruling his request for no retirement party, the St. Lawrence
O’Toole-St. Cyril Parish community will gather to celebrate the
ministry of Father Fernandes at the 11 a.m. liturgy on June 12. A potluck
will follow. Instead of gifts the priest asked that donations be made
to the Mother of Peace orphanage in Zimbabwe, which helps children living
with AIDS and HIV. For more information, contact the parish at (510) 530-0761.)
Father John Fernandes
