Rev. Walter B. Hoye II, left, is greeted by Archbishop Cordileone after Hoye's release from jail. Issues4Life Foundation/ Courtesy photo

By Rev. Walter Hoye
Special to The Catholic Voice

[Editor's note: The lives of Rev. Walter Hoye, a Baptist minister who served 18 days in jail for protesting in front of an Oakland abortion clinic and who is founder and president of the Issues4Life Foundation, based in Union City, and Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone have crossed paths many times. Here are some of Rev. Hoye's reflections:]

Archbishop Cordileone and I were born in the same year (1956). He was born in San Diego, California on Tuesday, June 5, 1956. I was born in Detroit, Michigan on Monday, Aug. 20, 1956.

We went to competing high schools in San Diego only six miles away from each other.

Archbishop Cordileone graduated from Crawford and I graduated from Patrick Henry in 1974.

Archbishop Cordileone was a drum major at Crawford and I played football at Patrick Henry.

I believe when Crawford played Patrick Henry we shared the same football field.

Archbishop Cordileone was ordained a priest, July 9, 1982, in San Diego.

I was licensed to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a Baptist preacher, Jan. 12, 1982, in San Diego.

On March 28, 2009, then Oakland Bishop-designate Cordileone visited me in jail.

While what we talked about is privileged, his words and his presence touched my soul.

What I can say is that while talking, in a separate wing of the jail, under guard and through bullet-proof glass we became brothers.

I want to thank Eva Muntean for bringing the bishop to visit me.

In August 2009, Lori (Mrs. Hoye) and I were a part of the farewell celebration for the new Oakland Bishop Cordileone in San Diego.

The day after the celebration, Lori and I ran into the then Oakland Bishop Cordileone with his mother, dressed in plain clothes and wearing his ever-famous beret hat.

Then Bishop Cordileone and his mother parked in the same parking space that my mother and father had just vacated.

Lori and I were pleasantly surprised to see then Oakland Bishop Cordileone and his mother walking into one of her favorite restaurants (The Black Angus Steakhouse in San Diego).

As it turned out, one of Archbishop Cordileone's mother's favorite restaurants (The Black Angus Steakhouse) was also one of my Dad's favorite restaurants.

It was so interesting to see Archbishop Cordileone as a devoted son!

We greeted one another and talked briefly in the parking lot.

Since then, whenever I am in the heat of the Pro-Life battle, or find myself working to promote traditional marriage or standing up for religious freedom, I do not hesitate to communicate with Archbishop Cordileone.

For example, in January 2008, I organized our first Memorial Service for the victims of abortion.

I invited both the Protestant and Catholic churches to come together.

Then Oakland Bishop Allen Henry Vigneron was asked to speak at our event alongside two other Baptist pastors.

In his last act as the Bishop of Oakland, Bishop Vigneron came that night, brought his congregation with him and more than held his own at the microphone.

By the end of that night I heard "Freedom Ring" and watched Protestants and Catholics come together.

After being blessed by Bishop Vigneron, I came to visit the new Oakland Bishop Cordileone with the request that we hold the Memorial service at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland.

Then Bishop Cordileone agreed and since then I have alternated the Memorial Service from a Protestant Church to the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland.

This January, we were at the Cathedral of Christ the Light and I watched Archbishop Cordileone and Bishop Soto (Sacramento) greet the two most influential Black pastors in Oakland (at our memorial services and with their love for the brethren (Hebrews 13:1) overcome many of the differences between the two churches.

Oh, how I love Archbishop Cordileone.

home