‘Becoming Capuchin was natural thing to do’

January 16, 2015
Tom Burke

Father Michael Mahoney celebrated his 50th year as a Capuchin Franciscan in 2014. He was ordained in 1974. “The Capuchins were a household word in our house,” the pastor of Our Lady of Angels Parish in Burlingame told me via email. Father Michael’s family and his home parish in Ireland were alive with vocations. “I had three uncles who were priests and two aunts who were nuns,” he said. In his countryside parish of 1960 there were 80 priests with roots in the parish serving around the world.

“I grew up in Ireland in the 1950s when priesthood and religious life were highly valued vocations. Mothers, families and parish communities supported and encouraged young men to go into a life devoted to God.”

Father Michael attended the Capuchin high school in Rochestown, Cork. He had two uncles who were Capuchin Franciscans. “Becoming a Capuchin seemed a natural thing for me to do,” he said. “In my high school graduating class of 22 boys, eight of us joined the Capuchin Order.”

Father Michael is a licensed marriage and family therapist. His early years as a psychologist and a young priest were in service to the incarcerated in Ireland.

“Working with prisoners was a valuable learning experience and gave me a firsthand experience of what life is like for the poor, the uneducated, those who grow up in crime-infested neighborhoods,” he said.

In 1978 he came to California as a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Angels. Since then he has served 36 years with the Capuchins in California, 20 of them at OLA, “a parish I dearly love,” he said.

“It has been a great joy for me to work with my brother Capuchins and a wonderful staff here at OLA. We continue to minister to our people in the Capuchin Franciscan way: openness, availability, love of people, builders of community. The goodness, the faith and the fidelity of parishioners is a constant reminder to me that it is in giving that we receive and in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

STARS OF THE SEA: San Francisco’s Star of the Sea School honored Adelle Balmy, Lauri Hill, Lynda McCarthy, with George Pulizzano with Stella Maris awards Nov. 22. Adelle was involved with the school’s Mothers’ Club and served as head room parent. She was among those behind early fundraisers that have since grown into an annual parish festival. Lauri helped open Star’s preschool in 2008 and its soon being accepted and seen as a great addition to the neighborhood and the parish. “Lauri Hill is a truly wonderful Catholic educator.,” the school said. Lynda served for 30 years at Star many as principal. “Perhaps the greatest gift Lynda shared with Star was here enthusiasm and infectious sense of Christian joy,” the school said. George served as a coach and athletic director at Star of the Sea. “George has given time, energy and love to our students and our community,” the school said.

ALL HATS OFF: Remembered at a funeral Mass Jan. 12 at St. Cecilia Church was Patricia Pinnick, a longtime teacher at the parish school who died Jan. 7 at age 82. Pat also served at St. Thomas More School as librarian after retiring from St. Cecilia. In his homily at the funeral Mass, St. Cecilia pastor, Msgr. Michael Harriman, remembered Pat as a person who lived her faith. “Rejoice in the Lord” would be always on her lips, he told the assembly that included Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary who served as principal at St. Cecilia’s during Pat’s 49 years there as well as students from St. Cecilia’s and St. Thomas More. Pat was a graduate of Holy Names University in Oakland.

Email items and electronic pictures – jpegs at no less than 300 dpi to burket@sfarchdiocese.org or mail to Street, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109. Include a follow-up phone number. Street is toll-free. My phone number is (415) 614-5634.