 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
November
7, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 19Oakland,
CA
Benicia pastor
assumes leadership
of Berkeley parish
After spending seven years as pastor at St. Dominic
Parish in Benicia, Dominican Father David Farrugia has made a relatively
short move to Berkeley to begin his new assignment as pastor of St. Mary
Magdalen Parish.
He succeeds Dominican Father George Matanic, now assigned to the Newman
Center at the University of California, Riverside.
Among his first tasks is getting to know his new parish family. “This
is a smaller parish than in Benicia, where we had 2300 families,”
the priest said. St. Mary Magdalen has about 700 families.
He plans to invite two or three families at a time to meet with him to
discuss their ideas and concerns.
Although he had been living in the Berkeley parish for barely a week when
contacted by The Voice, Father Farrugia had already formed many positive
impressions. “I’ve met really wonderful people who are very
much involved in the parish,” he said.
“There are beautiful liturgies and it’s highly organized.
I give credit to the former pastor, Father Matanic. He was very organized.
I have to keep that organization going … I would like to keep building
on that.”
Father Farrugia, 71, has more than 20 years of parish experience, including
time as a pastor in Riverside and Oregon in addition to Benicia. He said
he has turned down non-parish assignments because he prefers working in
parishes.
The priest grew up in Malta, which he described as having a long and “very
Catholic” history. He was baptized in a church that dates to 1200.
It is said that St. Paul the Apostle, who was shipwrecked off the coast
of Malta during his travels, converted the country to Catholicism.
Tradition also has it that St. Luke painted a picture of Mary that now
hangs in a Maltan church.
The Dominican Order, which he joined at age 19, came to Malta in 1492.
“That’s 200 years after they were founded,” he said.
A graduate of Dominican College there, he was ordained to the priesthood
in 1960 at St. John the Baptist Cathedral, built by the Knights of Malta
in 1500.
After arriving in the U.S. in 1964, Father Farrugia held a variety of
assignments in the western U.S., including chaplain to the Christian Brothers
at Mont La Salle in Napa, director of the Newman Center at UC Riverside
and chaplain for students at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Asked about his hopes for his new work, he said he will take his direction
from the parish’s mission statement, “Together we share our
faith in Jesus Christ. We live the Gospel, and we care for others.”
“I’m sure that with the help of the people we can accomplish
what the mission said and go forward from there.”
Father David Farrugia, OP
