 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
June
20, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 12Oakland,
CA
Priests reflect on years of ministry
60 YEARS
Msgr. Robert Adams
Birthplace: San Rafael, CA
Ordination: June 16, 1945, St. Mary’s Cathedral,
San Francisco
Present ministry: Pastor emeritus, St. Michael Parish,
Livermore
Past service: Associate pastor, St. Agnes, San Francisco,
St. Theresa , Oakland, St. Cyril, Oakland; chaplain and instructor at
Providence Hospital, Oakland; pastor, St. Columba, Oakland, St. Michael,
Livermore.
The Cure of Ars, St. John Vianney, patron of parish priests, was
ordained on Aug. 13, 1815. On the day of his first Mass, as he began the
liturgy, he prayed, “Dear God, I’d like to be a really holy
priest.”
Having completed my 60 years as a priest, I can think of no better prayer
to be offered by each priest as he offers his daily Mass.
Granted, many articles have been written on the priesthood, for better
or for worse. But, unless holiness takes precedence, I believe one’s
priesthood is doomed to failure. For it has been rightly proclaimed, “The
Church needs holy priests, holy priests above all things.”
After 60 years of priesthood, I still believe this!
Father Ernest Brainard
Birthplace: Oakland
Ordination: June 16, 1945, St. Mary’s Cathedral,
San Francisco
Present ministry: Retired. In residence, St. Andrew-St.
Joseph, Oakland
Past Service: Associate pastor, St. Leo, San Jose; teacher,
Serra High School, San Mateo and Bishop O’Dowd High in Oakland;
pastor, St. Peter Martyr, Pittsburg, St. Clement, Hayward; founder of
ARDOR (Alcoholism Relief Diocese of Oakland Resources).
(This reflection was written on the occasion of his 50th anniversary
of ordination. He requested that it be reprinted this year.)
I am not a perfect priest. I have struggled with my many imperfections
and my addictions and tried to be the best priest that I could be. I am
still working at it.
Am I a happy priest? Eminently so! Do I have things that worry and trouble
me? Yes; however, I have always been a worrywart.
Have I ever regretted becoming a priest? Absolutely not! But I have wished
many times that I could have measured up to what I thought Jesus wanted
of me.
Now that I am older and wiser, I think that Jesus did not have great expectations
of me. Rather, he had and he has great love, great caring, and great compassion
of me. He has always been there when I needed him.
I always want to be there for him and for those whom he loves. I can’t
do it alone. I trust that he will always give me the strength and the
guidance to do so.
Father Sebastian Drake, OFM
Birthplace: South Bend, Ind.
Ordination: June 3, 1945, Old Mission, Santa Barbara
Present ministry: Retired
Past service: Chinese language study in Beijing; teacher,
Central Catholic High, Portland, St. Elizabeth High, Oakland; retreat
director, St. Francis Retreat, San Juan Bautista, San Damiano Retreat,
Danville, St. Michael Retreat, Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Canada; chaplain,
Stockton State Hospital, Northern California Women’s Prison; parish
ministry, St. Joseph, Los Angeles, St. Mary, Stockton.
I thank God that I have become a priest and lived to be 87 years old.
I have received assignments that were exciting, challenging and fulfilling.
I got involved in the healing ministry and read Francis MacNutt’s
book, “Healing” and was fascinated with it. I have seen people
healed instantly and more people who were improved by prayer.
If someone is improved by prayer, then by continuing prayer for 15 minutes
each day or week or month that person could be totally healed. It is quite
rewarding to see someone healed by prayer because it is Jesus who heals.
The one who says the prayer or lays a hand on the shoulder of the sick
person is a participant. It is Jesus who heals and we give him all the
honor and glory.
Father John Dollard
Birthplace: San Mateo, CA
Ordination: June 16, 1945, St. Mary’s Cathedral,
San Francisco
Present ministry: Retired
Past service: Associate pastor, Sacred Heart Parish,
Oakland, St. Paul Parish, San Francisco, St. Anselm Parish, San Anselmo,
Queen of All Saints, Concord, Our Lady of Grace, Castro Valley; pastor,
St. Charles Borromeo, Livermore.
I have found the life of a priest is very fulfilling. However, I
did find Church laws difficult to implement, many of which were changed
by Vatican II. Difficulty in implementing such laws led to my suspension
by Bishop Begin in 1976. I was reinstated by Bishop Cummins in 1980.
Father Edmund Hayburn
Birthplace: San Francisco
Ordination: June 16, 1945, St. Mary’s Cathedral,
San Francisco
Present ministry: Retired
Past service: Assistant pastor, St. Margaret Mary, Oakland,
St. Charles, San Francisco, St. Joseph, San Francisco, Sacred Heart, Oakland;
pastor, St. Agnes, Concord, St. Leonard, Fremont.
I thank God for the many years of serving the Lord
Father Vladimir Kozina
Birthplace: Zapotok, Slovenia
Ordination: May 27, 1945, in Anras, Austria
Present ministry: Retired
Past service: Associate pastor in Diocese of Innsbruck,
Austria, Assumption, Stockton, St. Anne, Lodi, St. Elizabeth, San Francisco,
St. Clement, Hayward, Corpus Christi, Piedmont; pastor, Immaculate Heart
of Mary, Brentwood, St. Margaret Mary, Oakland.
It seems to me that, because of unnatural sexual behavior against
minors committed by some homosexual priests, quite many priests have lost
confidence in their sacred mission, perhaps even in the mission of the
Church. They live in fear and confusion.
Not only the Church, but the whole world, is “wrapped up in darkness”
(Jb 37:19), in a very mysterious darkness! We look for light and all is
dark…
Yes, all is dark for a priest who, due to the lack of prayer and prudence,
has lost the right discernment of his priestly vocation, forgetting the
assurance of Jesus Christ given to the apostles, his first priests, on
the occasion of the Last Supper:
“In the world you will have affliction. But take courage, I have
overcome the world” (John 16:33).
We priests should not only remind ourselves of
Christ’s counsel: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine,
let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt.
16, 24-25) and be close to Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest.
We should be close also to his mother and our Mother—Mary, who is
the immaculate Mother of God and our shield against this mysterious darkness.
In her motherly tenderness and love, Mary, our mother, has given us a
most precious gift—her beloved Son who is the Light that “shines
in the dark, a light that darkness could not overcome” (John 1:3).
May our Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the World (John 9:5), scatter
the darkness of sin and restore peace and courage in our priestly hearts.
Let his love, through the intercession of his and our mother, Mary, dispel
all fear and confusion and shine brightly in our hearts for the greater
glory of God and the salvation of immortal souls.
Father Theo Palis
Birthplace: Geruliai, Lithuania
Ordination: July 7, 1945, in Eichsttat, Bavaria, Germany
Present ministry: Pastor Emeritus, Our Lady Queen of
the World Parish, Bay Point
Past service: Chaplain, displaced persons camp, Augsburg,
Germany; associate pastor, Guardian Angels, Clawson, Mich., St. Lawrence,
Portland, Ore., St. Eugene, Santa Rosa, St. Raymond, Menlo Park, St. Anselm,
San Anselmo, St. John the Baptist, San Lorenzo, St. Cyril, Oakland, Queen
of All Saints, Concord, St. Perpetual, Lafayette; pastor, Our Lady Queen
of the World.
(Father Palis suffers from macular degeneration and has been blind
for the past eight years. He continues to hear confessions.)
50 YEARS
Father James Driscoll
Birthplace: San Francisco
Ordination: June 11, 1955, St. Mary’s Cathedral,
San Francisco
Present ministry: Retired
Past service: Associate pastor, St. Leo, Oakland, St.
Leonard, Fremont, St. Lawrence O’Toole, Oakland, Sacred Heart, Oakland,
St. Basil, Vallejo; pastor, St. Augustine, Oakland; diocesan director,
Propagation of the Faith; director of faith formation, St. Isidore, Danville.
Father John Manning
Birthplace: Flushing, New York
Ordination: June 11, 1955, Maryknoll, New York
Present ministry: Retired
Past service: Missionary in Tanzania and Kenya; hospital
chaplain, Tarrytown, New York; associate pastor, St. Jerome, El Cerrito,
St. Felicitas, San Leandro, St. Isidore, Danville, St. Paschal, Oakland;
chaplain, Kaiser Hospital, Walnut Creek, Apostleship of the Sea, Oakland;
pastor, St. Jerome, El Cerrito.
When Father John Manning retired, he told The Catholic Voice that
he saw himself as a “simple priest.” But his priestly life
has been full of adventure, including his 15 years as a missionary in
East Africa where he worked with the Wakuria tribe, who are part of the
Bantu ethnic group. He labored for years translating the New Testament
into the tribe’s unwritten dialect, Gikuria, for the priests who
succeeded him. Every parish in the region baptized some 1,000 adults each
year, which made the work both exhilarating and exhausting.
Father John Hilary Martin, OP
Birthplace: Montclair, New Jersey
Ordination: June 10, 1955, St. Mary’s Cathedral,
San Francisco
Present ministry: Professor Emeritus, Dominican School
of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, and Graduate Theological Union,
Berkeley; visiting professor, Yarra Theological Union and Catholic Theological
College, Melbourne, Australia.
Past service: acting dean, Graduate Theological Union;
professor, St. Albert’s Priory, Oakland; regent of studies, Western
Dominican Province; in residence, St. Mary Magdalen Parish, Berkeley;
scholar among aboriginal communities in Australia.Father John Hilary Martin,
OP
My profession of solemn vows and ordination completed a phase of my
life and opened up a door on something other. I was sent to England to
complete my studies at Oxford.
I could not fail to notice rumblings of dissent to the standard Church
line, both theological and political. Dissent in the Church was genteelly
suppressed – editors too outspoken were removed from their magazines,
teachers were sent to obscure priories, books and articles which failed
to pass the censors were suppressed, some experimental apostolates closed
down.
There was a real fear that communism and anti-religious socialism might
succeed in getting control of the weak post-war democracies of western
Europe as they had already done in Eastern Europe with such devastating
effect.
The rumblings of theological unrest in Europe, however, were not much
heard as yet in California, but they were not long in coming.
Pope John XXIII called a Council. Almost at once, reports about the Council’s
work generated a sense that this was a key moment in the history of the
Christian churches, not only the Roman Catholic Church.
The Graduate Theological Union was formed in 1964 with the Dominican School
as the first Catholic school to join. The unifying of the various faculties—without
homogenizing them –was the work of the 60s and 70s. Throughout all
of the activity, it was a joy to have the continuous attention, concern
and support of Bishop Cummins.
By the 1980s, the GTU had become a great meeting place for scholars and
professors from everywhere. It was a kind of pylon anchoring spans to
form bridges to other parts of the world.
Beginning in 1982, I began to make a series of trips to Australia’s
Northern Territory to stay with five aboriginal communities who live together.
Collectively that community became a mentor for me of how to live on the
land in a tribal form of life. Although my time there was more missionary,
the Catholic community there, with its different cultural ways of doing
things even of approaching our religion, was important to me.
Even to the point of learning what to pray for.
Now I want to examine the Church’s past to find guidelines for its
future. It is the generation of the present that must find consensus so
the Faith can flourish in all corners of our mixed race and multi-cultured
world. The outpouring of celebration at the funeral of Pope John Paul
II has shown us all how far we have traveled along that road.
Father Kenan Osborne, OFM
Birthplace: Santa Barbara
Ordination: Dec. 17, 1955, Old Mission Santa Barbara
Present ministry: Professor Emeritus, Franciscan School
of Theology, Berkeley
Past service: Author of 17 published books on theology
and numerous articles; professor of systematic theology, Franciscan School
of Theology/Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley; president, rector, academic
dean of the Franciscan School of Theology; visiting professor in sacramental
theology, Pontifico Ateneo, Rome, and other universities in U.S., Canada,
New Zealand, China; director of admissions, high school and college seminary
programs, Franciscan Province of St. Barbara; assistant director, The
Hour of St. Francis Radio and TV Productions, Los Angeles; instructor,
St. Anthony High School, Santa Barbara.
Although my entire priestly life has, for the most part, been spent
in academic work, the priesthood has been a major blessing throughout
my career.
In 1968, when I first came to the Franciscan School of Theology and the
Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, a goof portion of my time was
spent in ministry to priests. Since Vatican II had ended only a few years
before, there were many calls from bishops and other priestly institutes,
such as the Vatican II Institute at Menlo Park and various presbyteral
convocations throughout the United States and even abroad.
The themes of these meetings varied from the theology of priestly life
in a post-Vatican II age to the renewal of the sacraments of baptism,
confirmation, reconciliation and Eucharist.
The Diocese of Oakland, under Bishop Begin and Bishop Cummins, often asked
that I help in this way at parish-level meetings and at diocesan-level
meetings. Perhaps, my presence and input helped some priests along the
way, but the presence of these many groups of priests inspired me in an
even deeper way
There was an eagerness to learn and grow in many of the priests at these
meetings; and there was even more a desire to deepen priestly spirituality.
I am indebted to so many of these priests since they increased my own
spirituality and strength. These many priests helped me reach this 50th
year of ordination, and I am very grateful.
Father Francisco Vicente, OP
Birthplace: Salamanca, Spain
Ordination: July 3, 1955, University Chapel, Pontifical
University of Salamanca
Present ministry: Parochial vicar, Most Holy Rosary,
Antioch
Past service: Parochial vicar, St. Peter Martyr, Pittsburg,
St. Dominic, Benicia, St. Dominic, San Francisco; pastor, St. Mary Magdalen,
Berkeley, Holy Rosary, Antioch; Socius of the Master of the Dominican
Order and vicar general of the Order; judicial vicar, Diocese of Oakland.
From the earliest days of his tenure as bishop of Monterey (1850)
and later as first archbishop of San Francisco, Joseph Sadoc Alemany,
a Dominican and Spaniard pioneer, called upon his fellow Dominicans to
serve the people of California in preaching, teaching and parochial ministries.
Today, Dominicans of the Western Dominican Province continue to pursue
these ministries in Alaska, the West and Southwest, Mexico, and elsewhere.
Just a hundred years later (1955), I was asked by my Dominican superiors
in Spain to move to California in order to complete my theological studies
at our Dominican House of Studies in Oakland. I took advantage of a Dominican
privilege to be ordained at the chapel of the Pontifical University of
Salamanca two years before the actual completion of my theological studies.
And so I joined the Dominican students at St. Albert Priory in Oakland
for three more years of theology after my ordination.
I am most grateful to God for the gift of my priesthood and my Dominican
vocation. It has been truly a gift, but also a challenge. During the ritual
of my ordination, I committed myself to be a priest of Christ and at the
service of the Church, aware of my own inadequacies. I asked God also
for the gift of faithfulness and mercy in dispensing the sacred mysteries
entrusted to me. Now, looking back to that moment, I can say with St Paul
that “I have been indeed apprehended by Christ Jesus.” I have
no regrets in spite of the turmoils, but a great joy for the 50 years
of priestly ministry.
I have been privileged to spend the greater part of my priestly life in
the Oakland Diocese. This has given me the unique opportunity of developing
deep relationships with friends and parishioners in the area and the priests
of the diocese. Precisely because I live and worked so long in the same
area, I have a deep sense of gratitude to Bishop John Cummins with whom
I worked at the Chancery office as his judicial vicar. I thank him for
his friendship.
After a lengthy departure from the Bay Area when I served the Dominican
Order in Rome as a vicar general (1983-1992), I returned to the diocese
where I hope to complete the golden years of my priestly life. The parishioners
of Pittsburg, Berkeley and Antioch have taught me the gift of my ordination
was not intended for my own personal benefit but for the service of the
community. I have touched many lives and I have been enriched in the most
plentiful manner. I am very grateful. I love being a priest.
40 YEARS
Father Bernardino Andrade
Birthplace: Madeira Island, Portugal
Ordination: June 12, 1965, Diocese of Quelimane, Mozambique
Present ministry: Pastor, St. Anthony, Oakley
Past service: Missionary in Mozambique; associate pastor,
St. Edward, Newark; director, Portuguese Pastoral Center, Oakland Diocese.
I was 12 years old when my mother asked me, “Bernardino, wouldn’t
you like to be a priest?”
I don’t remember if I had thought about that before. What I remember
is that I said “Yes” and on Oct. 15, 1950, at the age of 12,
I entered the seminary, accompanied by my mother and father, the two greatest
saints of my life.
Today I am 67 and that “Yes” has been part of my daily prayer,
my daily commitment, and my daily routine.
On June 12, 1965, in a soccer field of an African diocese, my bishop imposed
his hands on me, anointed my hands, made me a priest and my “Yes”
became a sacrament.
Some people have asked me, “At the age of 12 what did you understand
about priesthood?”
My answer is that today I am 67 and I still do not understand it. It is
a mystery that little by little has been revealed to me when I celebrate
the sacraments and serve the people of God, especially the poorest of
the poor who hunger for compassion and justice.
After 40 years of saying Mass, I still feel emotional when I take the
host and the chalice and say, “This is my Body… this is my
Blood.”
What most makes me get up in the morning is the desire to alleviate the
suffering of the world.
Father Vincent Brylka
Birthplace: Chicago
Ordination: Dec. 18, 1965, Chapel, Seraphicum Pontifical
College, Rome
Present ministry: Pastor, St. Clement Parish, Hayward
Past service: Teacher, St. Mary Preparatory Seminary,
Crystal Lake, Ill., Bishop Montgomery High, Torrance, CA; chaplain and
guidance counselor, Felician Sisters Motherhouse and Good Counsel High,
Chicago; associate director, St. Bonaventure Novitiate, Lake Forest, Ill;
director of candidates, Sacred Heart House of Studies, Chicago; provincial
secretary, St. Bonaventure Province, Lake Forest, Ill; director, St. Hedwig
Cemetery, Dearborn Heights, MI; parochial vicar, Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Hermosa Beach, CA, St. Anthony of Padua, Rockford, Ill., St. Josaphat
Basilica, Milwaukee, St. Leander, San Leandro, St. Anne, Union City; pastor,
St. Catherine of Siena, Martinez.
My 40 years of priestly ministry began with the Conventual Franciscans
in the Chicago Province of St. Bonaventure. For the last 16 years, I have
ministered in parishes in the Diocese of Oakland. The vineyard of the
Lord is vast and varied.
It has been a life-rewarding experience, showing me the deep faith and
love of God which can be found in the lives of the faithful. A personal
sense of fulfillment comes from being able to be the Lord’s servant
in a very literal sense. In so many of life’s experiences do people
need, want, search for, or rejoice in the presence of the Higher Power.
I am humbled to have received the gift of this vocation to the priesthood,
so that through the ministry of the Church, the life of God might touch
the lives of humankind.
A sense of fulfillment comes form the mutual ministry and support of so
many in the Church, seeing their dedication and commitment in the living
out of a baptismal calling. The focus of the Second Vatican Council continues
to influence the awareness of people everywhere that the Holy Spirit of
God is very much present in the world.
25 YEARS
Father Christopher Berbena
Birthplace: Modesto
Ordination: June 15, 1980, Stockton
Present ministry: Parochial vicar, St. John Vianney,
Walnut Creek
Past service: Parochial vicar, St. Anthony, Oakland,
St. Joseph, Pinole
The priesthood for me has been a time of service and caring for the
People of God. This service and caring has been manifested in the celebration
of the Eucharist and the sacraments.
At each parish where I have ministered, the pastoral care of the sick
has been very dear to my heart because it is spoken of as a command of
the Lord to visit and care for the sick and dying.
The ministry of the priesthood has been a great spiritual journey with
Our Lord.
Other priests celebrating their
jubilees:
50 years:
Father Thomas Raftery, OP
Father Stephen Ryan, OSM
Father Francis Vella
40 years:
Father Frank Houdek, SJ
Father Edmund Ryan, OP
Msgr.
Robert Adams
Father
Ernest Brainard
Father
Sebastian Drake, OFM
Father
John Dollard
Father
Edmund Hayburn
Father
Vladimir Kozina
Father
Theo Palis
Father
James Driscoll
Father
John Manning
Father
John Hilary Martin, OP
Father
Kenan Osborne, OFM
Father
Francisco Vicente, OP
Father
Bernardino Andrade
Father
Vincent Brylka
Father
Christopher Berbena
