Father Joseph O'Looney, C.S.P.
Born May 31, 1918 in the City of San Francisco
Ordained on Saturday, May 11, 1946 at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City.
Died December 21, 2006 in Marin County
Easter 1996 - the year of his Golden Jubilee as a priest:
"My gray hair and tired bones keep teling me that I am
in the autumn of my life. Autumn is the season of
transitions. It speaks of change, of the passing away of
institutions and eras, and the deaths of precious
memories and people. It calls forth a keen awareness of
what is truly important in life and a realization of how
short is the time left for acts of generosity, heroism, and
affection. It sharply reminds us that it is time to count
our blessings and to be grateful, since gratitude is the
mother of all prayer.
Thank you, Lord, for all those friends who inspired me
to live by gospel values by their example of fidelity,
courage and perseverance, who put their bodies on the
line and didn't give up hope in thimes of crisis.
My final word is to remind you that you are Easter
people. We have survived many crucifixions. Let us
rejoice and be glad.
Thank you for everything. May your hearts continue to
be bold, merry and enduring."
All my love,
Father Joe
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A Tribute to Fr. Joseph O’Looney
In Celebration of his Sixty Years as a Priest
Old Saint Mary’s in San Francisco, May 21, 2006
Dan Onorato
A verse from John’s Gospel today (15:16-17) reminds us of the mystery of Divine love, Divine favor:
It was not you who chose me;
It was I who chose you
To go forth and bear fruit.
This applies to all of us who in our many diverse ways seek God and try to love one another. But today, celebrating Fr. Joe’s 60 years as a priest, the verse resonates the inexplicable essence of priestly vocation: 60 years ago at ordination, God chose Fr. Joe to “go forth and bear fruit.”
Today we have gathered together at this Sacrament of Thanksgiving to honor this native son of San Francisco for the very abundant harvest of his long life of priestly commitment.
Joe’s decision to become a priest was a surprise to many. One family friend on hearing of Joe’s announcement in 1940 to enter the seminary, said he wouldn’t last three months. Several girl friends, smitten with his Irish charm, pleaded with him not to throw away his address book.
But as Fr. Joe comments in his autobiography (1), God writes straight with crooked lines. After all, this was the kid who helped his Dad sell bootlegged liquor to their grocery store customers during Prohibition. This kid who years later made a pilgrimage to the Blarney Stone, called it “medicine.” This was the kid who loved gambling at the card table. This was the basketball jock and coach who practiced and taught the art of a quick jab or sharp elbow to unbalance an opponent. This was the kid who as a junior at Commerce High here in the city joined the Long Shoremen’s strike and then spent the next several summers sailing with the Merchant Marine to Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, and Alaska. Needless to say, this was not the typical young man who chooses to become a priest.
Fr. Joe regards himself as a “survivor.” But on one of the Merchant Marine ventures in the Philippines he almost didn’t survive. He found himself the guest of the chief of the Igorat tribe of headhunters. Fr. Joe loves exotic food, but the tribe’s sumptuous dinner of snake and monkey stew challenged his taste buds in untold ways. Then chief offered Joe one of his wives. As Joe laconically writes in his book, he “delicately declined.”
Fr. Joe chose to be a Paulist because he was attracted to the dual vision of its founder, Isaac Hecker. Hecker emphasized both missionary activity and contemplation. Most people know Fr. Joe for his active commitments—all that he has done. But what has nurtured his stay power and his faith in those commitments is his profound prayer life. Thought he’s very much a social person, the deepest part of Fr. Joe’s spirit gravitates toward solitude, silence, and stillness. Joe also liked the Paulists’ respect for individuality, initiative, and adaptability. He wasn’t cut out to be a conventional priest. As Sister Rose Marie Cecchini writes in his book, “Fr. Joe has resisted every attempt to domesticate his vocation.”
Change is the salient characteristic of Fr. Joe’s priesthood. After ordination he spent several years working in Paulist Informational Centers in Toronto, here at Old Saint Mary’s for five years, and Boston. He then spent years as a Navy Chaplain with the Pacific fleet and in the San Diego area. Whatever disagreement he may have had with U.S. foreign policy got put on the back burner in his commitment to be present to the men he served and their families in times of need.
He also spent many years in campus ministry serving as a Newman Club chaplain at UC Berkeley, Northeastern University in Boston, and the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He then worked giving Church Renewal retreats all over the West Coast, and more recently served in several parishes in the Bay Area, where he worked closely with Pacific Islanders and Latinos. His current ministry—perhaps his most difficult—is to his fellow residents at Nazareth House in San Rafael. Like them, he faces each day the ills of aging and the challenge of accepting his mortality.
For me personally, and for many other Amigos, some of whom are here today, no ministry in his priesthood has born more fruit than the one he started with Amigos Anonymous when he was at the Newman Club in Berkeley. In 1963 he challenged university and college students, guys and gals together, to go live and work with poor people in Mexico. The program was the equivalent of a summer Peace Corps. What began with two projects and forty students burgeoned in a few years into fourteen projects and over 250 students. With his charisma and maverick priest style, Fr. Joe was a natural organizer. We Amigos were blessed with his understanding, encouragement, insight, guidance, and leadership. He was alive. He hadn’t settled down or settled in. He wasn’t frozen into the restrictive traditions, norms, or complacency of either Church or State. And he had lots of fire. He criticized what was wrong, and he advocated constructive change. He instinctively believed in young people and our desire to create a better, freer, more equal and just society and world. For people like me and the many seminarians who joined Amigos over the years, his call to openness and active engagement in the world and its social problems was a liberating invitation. Through Amigos Anonymous he offered us young people a way to channel our passionate idealism. He often reminded us of Robert Kennedy’s words: “Some people see the problems and ask why. I see the challenges and ask why not.”
For many Amigos our experience in Mexico both with our Mexican friends and with one another, has left an indelible imprint. Fr. Joe enlarged and deepened our view of the world and our circle of compassion, He has the profound satisfaction of knowing that through Amigos Anonymous he helped influence hundreds of young people to spend their lives generously for others. He continues his appeal to us and all his friends to contribute toward scholarships for poor students in one of the Mexican towns we once worked in.
At the heart of Fr. Joe’s priesthood is his deep and enduring commitment to the Social Gospel. He has never been one who retreats from Life’ complexity through religious platitudes. He doesn’t preach an other-worldly, merely private, personal relationship with God. As Sister Cecchini writes in his book, his homilies at UOP were “wake-up calls, challenging listeners to look beyond national borders with global perspective, energizing soul-thirsty college students for the real action of their lives, participation in the mission of God’s reign of peace, justice, and reconciling love.” Still today, through his homilies, his conversations, and his annual epistle to the “troops,” he helps people understand that Christ’ call is to work together in the here and now, especially with those most in need. As he writes in his book, a “prayerful person lives daily in touch with his own and the world’s troubles.” If prayer is authentic it necessarily leads to action on behalf of others.
Though he rails like a prophet against the abuses and the resistance to change in both Church and Sate, Fr. Joe’s message is essentially one of hope. As he makes clear in his Christmas letter each year, we may not win, but we’ve got to continue trying. He reminds us to hold on to the faith expressed by Martin Luther King, Jr., that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” We are agents of that arc, we are bearers of that hope, and, as Dorothy Day once said, there’s too much work to do to settle down.
In a couple of weeks Fr Joes will be 89. Though he has slowed down physically, he’s still mentally sharp and remains spiritually restless. His journey is not over till it’s over. Or as he would say, he hasn’t “dropped anchor” yet. He still has goals. He wants to be more of a peacemaker. He wants to be less angry, more fully nonviolent. He yearns to be more forgiving. And he strives to be more prayerfully accepting of the limitations his aging confronts him with each day.
Uncle Joe, as you reflect on your 60 years as a priest and your continuing aspirations, you may at times feel unworthy. When you do, please remember today’s reading: with infinite love God has chosen you—you, as you are—and you, with all your talent and generous risk-taking have born much fruit.
Sixty years ago God chose you and you responded: Here I am, Lord. I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me; I will hold your people in my heart.
For 60 years Fr. Joe has held God’s people in his heart. For the full harvest of his 60 years of faithful priestly service, please join me in applauding Fr. Joe.
1) FOREVER RESTLESS . . .An Outsider’s Quest for Justice
A Tribute to Fr. Joseph O’Looney
In Celebration of his Sixty Years as a Priest
Old Saint Mary’s in San Francisco, May 21, 2006
Dan Onorato
A verse from John’s Gospel today (15:16-17) reminds us of the mystery of Divine love, Divine favor:
It was not you who chose me;
It was I who chose you
To go forth and bear fruit.
This applies to all of us who in our many diverse ways seek God and try to love one another. But today, celebrating Fr. Joe’s 60 years as a priest, the verse resonates the inexplicable essence of priestly vocation: 60 years ago at ordination, God chose Fr. Joe to “go forth and bear fruit.”
Today we have gathered together at this Sacrament of Thanksgiving to honor this native son of San Francisco for the very abundant harvest of his long life of priestly commitment.
Joe’s decision to become a priest was a surprise to many. One family friend on hearing of Joe’s announcement in 1940 to enter the seminary, said he wouldn’t last three months. Several girl friends, smitten with his Irish charm, pleaded with him not to throw away his address book.
But as Fr. Joe comments in his autobiography (1), God writes straight with crooked lines. After all, this was the kid who helped his Dad sell bootlegged liquor to their grocery store customers during Prohibition. This kid who years later made a pilgrimage to the Blarney Stone, called it “medicine.” This was the kid who loved gambling at the card table. This was the basketball jock and coach who practiced and taught the art of a quick jab or sharp elbow to unbalance an opponent. This was the kid who as a junior at Commerce High here in the city joined the Long Shoremen’s strike and then spent the next several summers sailing with the Merchant Marine to Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, and Alaska. Needless to say, this was not the typical young man who chooses to become a priest.
Fr. Joe regards himself as a “survivor.” But on one of the Merchant Marine ventures in the Philippines he almost didn’t survive. He found himself the guest of the chief of the Igorat tribe of headhunters. Fr. Joe loves exotic food, but the tribe’s sumptuous dinner of snake and monkey stew challenged his taste buds in untold ways. Then chief offered Joe one of his wives. As Joe laconically writes in his book, he “delicately declined.”
Fr. Joe chose to be a Paulist because he was attracted to the dual vision of its founder, Isaac Hecker. Hecker emphasized both missionary activity and contemplation. Most people know Fr. Joe for his active commitments—all that he has done. But what has nurtured his stay power and his faith in those commitments is his profound prayer life. Thought he’s very much a social person, the deepest part of Fr. Joe’s spirit gravitates toward solitude, silence, and stillness. Joe also liked the Paulists’ respect for individuality, initiative, and adaptability. He wasn’t cut out to be a conventional priest. As Sister Rose Marie Cecchini writes in his book, “Fr. Joe has resisted every attempt to domesticate his vocation.”
Change is the salient characteristic of Fr. Joe’s priesthood. After ordination he spent several years working in Paulist Informational Centers in Toronto, here at Old Saint Mary’s for five years, and Boston. He then spent years as a Navy Chaplain with the Pacific fleet and in the San Diego area. Whatever disagreement he may have had with U.S. foreign policy got put on the back burner in his commitment to be present to the men he served and their families in times of need.
He also spent many years in campus ministry serving as a Newman Club chaplain at UC Berkeley, Northeastern University in Boston, and the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He then worked giving Church Renewal retreats all over the West Coast, and more recently served in several parishes in the Bay Area, where he worked closely with Pacific Islanders and Latinos. His current ministry—perhaps his most difficult—is to his fellow residents at Nazareth House in San Rafael. Like them, he faces each day the ills of aging and the challenge of accepting his mortality.
For me personally, and for many other Amigos, some of whom are here today, no ministry in his priesthood has born more fruit than the one he started with Amigos Anonymous when he was at the Newman Club in Berkeley. In 1963 he challenged university and college students, guys and gals together, to go live and work with poor people in Mexico. The program was the equivalent of a summer Peace Corps. What began with two projects and forty students burgeoned in a few years into fourteen projects and over 250 students. With his charisma and maverick priest style, Fr. Joe was a natural organizer. We Amigos were blessed with his understanding, encouragement, insight, guidance, and leadership. He was alive. He hadn’t settled down or settled in. He wasn’t frozen into the restrictive traditions, norms, or complacency of either Church or State. And he had lots of fire. He criticized what was wrong, and he advocated constructive change. He instinctively believed in young people and our desire to create a better, freer, more equal and just society and world. For people like me and the many seminarians who joined Amigos over the years, his call to openness and active engagement in the world and its social problems was a liberating invitation. Through Amigos Anonymous he offered us young people a way to channel our passionate idealism. He often reminded us of Robert Kennedy’s words: “Some people see the problems and ask why. I see the challenges and ask why not.”
For many Amigos our experience in Mexico both with our Mexican friends and with one another, has left an indelible imprint. Fr. Joe enlarged and deepened our view of the world and our circle of compassion, He has the profound satisfaction of knowing that through Amigos Anonymous he helped influence hundreds of young people to spend their lives generously for others. He continues his appeal to us and all his friends to contribute toward scholarships for poor students in one of the Mexican towns we once worked in.
At the heart of Fr. Joe’s priesthood is his deep and enduring commitment to the Social Gospel. He has never been one who retreats from Life’ complexity through religious platitudes. He doesn’t preach an other-worldly, merely private, personal relationship with God. As Sister Cecchini writes in his book, his homilies at UOP were “wake-up calls, challenging listeners to look beyond national borders with global perspective, energizing soul-thirsty college students for the real action of their lives, participation in the mission of God’s reign of peace, justice, and reconciling love.” Still today, through his homilies, his conversations, and his annual epistle to the “troops,” he helps people understand that Christ’ call is to work together in the here and now, especially with those most in need. As he writes in his book, a “prayerful person lives daily in touch with his own and the world’s troubles.” If prayer is authentic it necessarily leads to action on behalf of others.
Though he rails like a prophet against the abuses and the resistance to change in both Church and Sate, Fr. Joe’s message is essentially one of hope. As he makes clear in his Christmas letter each year, we may not win, but we’ve got to continue trying. He reminds us to hold on to the faith expressed by Martin Luther King, Jr., that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” We are agents of that arc, we are bearers of that hope, and, as Dorothy Day once said, there’s too much work to do to settle down.
In a couple of weeks Fr Joes will be 89. Though he has slowed down physically, he’s still mentally sharp and remains spiritually restless. His journey is not over till it’s over. Or as he would say, he hasn’t “dropped anchor” yet. He still has goals. He wants to be more of a peacemaker. He wants to be less angry, more fully nonviolent. He yearns to be more forgiving. And he strives to be more prayerfully accepting of the limitations his aging confronts him with each day.
Uncle Joe, as you reflect on your 60 years as a priest and your continuing aspirations, you may at times feel unworthy. When you do, please remember today’s reading: with infinite love God has chosen you—you, as you are—and you, with all your talent and generous risk-taking have born much fruit.
Sixty years ago God chose you and you responded: Here I am, Lord. I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me; I will hold your people in my heart.
For 60 years Fr. Joe has held God’s people in his heart. For the full harvest of his 60 years of faithful priestly service, please join me in applauding Fr. Joe.
1) FOREVER RESTLESS . . .An Outsider’s Quest for Justice