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September
24, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 15Oakland,
CA
HISTORIES
St.
Mary-St. Francis de Sales Parish
1853 - Catholics begin gathering for Mass in a chapel
on Seventh Street in Oakland that was briefly known as St. Anthony’s.
Sometime during the year the name of the chapel changes to St. Mary’s
of the Immaculate Conception and it operates as a mission of Mission San
Jose in Fremont.
1858 - Father James Croke becomes the first “resident
missionary” of St. Mary’s Church.
1861 - Father John Quinn becomes the first resident pastor.
Called the Mother Church of the East Bay, St. Mary’s Parish encompasses
an area from San Francisco Bay to Pinole in Contra Costa County and to
Livermore and Mission San Jose.
1865 - Father Michael King is named pastor, a position
he would hold for some 40 years.
1868 - Father King arranges for the arrival of the Sisters of the Holy
Names who open the Academy of the Sacred Heart, a secondary school for
girls at 20th and Webster streets. The Sisters also open a grammar school
for girls on the parish property. The Christian Brothers follow soon afterwards
and open a grammar school for boys in the parish.
1886 - St. Francis de Sales Parish is created with Father
Thomas McSweeney becomes first pastor.
1887 - The Holy Names Sisters establish a combined grammar
and high school for boys and girls with the Christian Brothers at St.
Francis de Sales Parish. The Sisters
also operate an all-girls high school at the parish until 1931.
1893 - On July 9, Archbishop Patrick Riordan dedicates
the new St. Francis de Sales Church, a red-brick Norman Gothic structure
with a handsome steeple and stained glass windows. Mary Canning, a parishioner
who donated some $125,000 for the construction of the building, attends
as does Archbishop (later Cardinal) Francesco Satolli, the apostolic delegate.
1905 - Father Edward Dempsey becomes pastor at St. Mary’s
Parish. During his term he oversees a renovation of the church, convent
and school buildings.
1961 - The Oblates of Mary Immaculate assumes pastoral
responsibility of St. Mary’s Parish and Oblate Father John J. Kelly
becomes pastor. During his tenure both the church and school are renovated.
1962 - St. Francis de Sales Parish becomes the cathedral
of the newly created Diocese of Oakland.
1967 - On Feb. 4, Bishop Floyd L. Begin presides over
the rededication of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral, which had undergone
extensive renovation that included painting the exterior brick edifice
adobe white and the removal of the altar rail.
1989 - The Oct. 17 Loma Prieta earthquake causes severe
damage to St. Francis de Sales Cathedral.
1990 - Bishop John Cummins announces that the diocese
does not have adequate funds to restore the cathedral building and ensure
its seismic safety. The structure is demolished in November 1993.
1991 - On Aug. 1, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate transfer
pastoral responsibility for St. Mary’s Parish to the Oakland Diocese.
Father Michael Norkett becomes administrator.
1993 - St. Mary, Immaculate Conception merges with St.
Francis de Sales Cathedral Parish.
St.
Andrew-St. Joseph Parish
1892 - Feb. 23: San Francisco Archbishop Patrick Riordan
dedicates St. Joseph Church at Chestnut and Seventh streets in West Oakland.
The national parish was created to care for the large community of Portuguese
immigrants. Father Manuel Fernandes is appointed as pastor.
1902 - Sept. 10: The Salesian Society comes to Oakland
to assumed pastoral responsibility of St. Joseph Parish.
1907 - Oct. 7: San Francisco Archbishop Patrick Riordan
creates St Andrew Parish in Oakland to attend to the needs of people who
had been displaced by the earthquake and fire that devastated San Francisco
the previous year. Father Patrick J. Quinn is appointed pastor.
Oct. 27: The first Mass of St Andrew Parish is celebrated at Old Dominion
Hall at 36th Street and San Pablo Avenue.
1909 - Oct. 19: The recently constructed St. Andrew Church
is dedicated at Adeline and 36th streets. The property and buildings cost
$67,000.
1936 - Father William Fleming begins a 21-year tenure
as pastor at St. Andrew Parish.
1954 - St. Andrew Parish is stunned by the announcement
by the State of California that their church property is required for
an extension of the MacArthur Freeway. The state buys the property and
sells the church building to St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church.
The new owners move the structure to its current location at 19th and
Market streets.
1957 - Following the death of Father Fleming, Father
Francis Scanlon is appointed pastor at St. Andrew Parish. The archdiocese
studies the possibility of eliminating the parish but feels that the Catholic
population, then about 500 families (about 30 percent of them black),
was stable and that the parish had the potential to increase in size through
conversions. Father Scanlon oversees construction of a new parish plant
including a church, rectory and hall at San Pablo Avenue and Brockhurst
Street.
1958 - March 9: Auxiliary Bishop Hugh A. Donohue of San
Francisco dedicates St. Andrew Church.
1960 - Father Scanlon resigns as pastor at St. Andrew
and is succeeded by Father Denis Kennelly.
1962 - Salesian Father Edgar Rocha, pastor of Mary Help
of Christians Parish in Oakland, is appointed pastor at St. Joseph Parish
when Mary Help of Christians becomes a mission of St. Joseph Parish.
1965 - Oakland Bishop Floyd Begin closes St. Joseph Parish,
which was located in the midst of the City of Oakland’s Acorn Redevelopment
Project. The parish community merges with St. Andrew Parish and the newly
combined congregation is known as St. Andrew-St. Joseph Parish. The Salesian
Fathers become
administers of the new parish.
1968 - May 1: Salesian Father John Maxwell, who had been
principal at Salesian High School in Richmond, becomes pastor at St. Andrew-St.
Joseph, a position he would hold for 26 years.
1973 - Bishop Floyd Begin joins Father Maxwell and some
300 parishioners and neighbors for the dedication of St. Andrew Manor,
a residence for low-income older people sponsored by the parish in partnership
with Satellite Senior Homes, Inc.
1976 - The parish opens a soup kitchen to feed the hungry.
1991 - The Salesians return the administration of the
parish to the Oakland Diocese. Father Maxwell, who was recently incardinated
to the diocese, remains as pastor.
1999 - Holy Names Sister Marian Wright is appointed parish
life director, developing a ministry to the growing Spanish-speaking community.
2003 - Following the death of Sister Wright, Father John
Direen is appointed parochial administrator.
