October 9, 2006VOL. 44, NO. 17Oakland, CA

Diocese’s oldest active pastor steps down at 88

When he retired as pastor at St. Anne Parish in Walnut Creek on Oct. 1, Msgr. John McCracken – at age 88 – had been the oldest pastor in active ministry in the Oakland Diocese.

He also reached an incredible milestone by serving through his 62nd anniversary in the priesthood. His contributions to the East Bay Church are almost too numerous to mention.

Born in Palo Alto and ordained to the priesthood in 1944, Msgr. McCracken became the first director of Catholic Charities of the East Bay shortly after the Oakland Diocese was created in 1962. Previously he was assistant director of the Archdiocesan Social Service in Alameda County and director of Catholic Social Service in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Sonoma and Solano counties.

He served as pastor at St. Benedict Parish in Oakland, and at Queen of All Saints in Concord, St. Mary in Walnut Creek, and Santa Maria in Orinda. His pastorate in Orinda was cut short by a heart attack and sextuple bypass surgery in 1985. When his health improved, he came out of retirement to serve as pastor at St. Anne Parish in Walnut Creek in 1989.

Msgr. John McCracken

That same year an award in Msgr. McCracken’s name was established to honor his work as a pioneer in Catholic social work in the East Bay and has been presented every year since then to honor an outstanding Bay Area Catholic woman.

During the award ceremony last month Oakland Bishop Allen Vigneron presented Msgr. McCracken with a special award from Catholic Charities of the East Bay in recognition of his leadership and service.

St. Anne Parish honored Msgr. McCracken at a special reception on Oct. 1.

Following are Msgr. McCracken’s reflections on his years as a priest.

By Msgr. John McCracken
Special to The Voice

Pope John Paul II, I think, pointedly summarized the vocation to the priesthood in commenting on Matthew’s “Not all men can receive the precept, but only those to whom it is given.”

He said: “The words quoted clearly indicate the importance of the personal choice and also the importance of the individual grace, this is, the gift which a man receives to make such a choice (TB, p. 263). [Emphasis mine]

Jesus, even more explicitly, makes the point to the Apostles: “It was not you who chose me; it was I who chose you’” (Jn. 15-16).

We don’t decide we have a vocation; he does and calls us officially in God’s name through the Church. The day I was ordained in St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, Archbishop John Mitty called me by name and I answered “Ad sum”; “I am here.” (“Here I am!”)

It’s a mystery of God’s love. Every time a priest asks: “Why me?” (as he thinks of others he feels more worthy), he can only fall back on “It’s a mystery; only God knows.” God has his own ways; he writes straight with crooked lines. He saved Samson with the jawbone of an ass (Judges 15:16), and converted Samaritans through a sinful woman (Jn 4:7).
He saw the unhidden potential in Peter. He can even use the likes of us.

It’s a matter of grace -- God’s call and a man’s acceptance, not knowing, like Mary, where it may lead.

I thought I knew where it should lead some 60 years ago, and I told him, but the archbishop had other ideas and I ended up in graduate school 3000 miles away from my beloved St. Augustine Parish and spent the next 25 years not in a parish but behind a desk, 15 of them in Catholic Social Service offering children foster care and counseling families in five different counties -- Marin, Sonoma, Solano, Contra Costa, and Alameda.

The next 10 years I was charged in 1962 by Bishop Floyd Begin, our first bishop, to organize Catholic Charities of the East Bay and finance it through a Catholic Charities Appeal. He said, “I know you want a parish, but I need you for 10 years.”

I went back to my desk, noted the date and 10 years from that very date I put my letter of resignation on his desk, saying “You wanted 10; I’ve given them to you.” He was a good man. With some objection he finally agreed as long as I would be available as a consultant.

During those years I also operated a private project for 15 years that had nothing to do with my office at Catholic Charities: Sunshine Camp for poor kids. It was an all volunteer staff,
including laity and seminarian counselors. I also taught medical ethics and sociology to nurses at Providence College of Nursing for seven years, organized 23 dioceses nationally into a coordinated Catholic Charities Appeal raising funds on the same date, using the same media materials, etc., and spent several years preaching to raise funds for Father Tom Saunders (a former altar boy working for 40 years as a missioner in Mexico.) I did other jobs as requested.

Since then, I have been through several parishes: St. Benedict in East Oakland, Queen of All Saints in Concord, St. Mary in Walnut Creek, Santa Maria in Orinda followed by three years of retirement because of six heart by-passes and doctors who wouldn’t let me go back to full-time parish work.

I will be forever grateful to Bishop John Cummins when he agreed that I could “put my hat in the ring” for St. Anne (where I had been helping the ailing Father James Clark) if my doctors agreed. They did, he did, and the rest is 17 wonderful years on borrowed time in a very unique parish.

We priests get all the credit, but behind us are great staffs, dedicated secretaries and the wonderful People of God. For us priests it is as He said, “I am sending you into the world” (Jn 17:18-19). He sends us into all kinds of things and all over the place!

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