-
Bishop Robert F. Christian's white-draped casket rests at the foot of the altar at St. Mary's Cathedral during his funeral Mass July 23. (Photo by Debra Greenblat/Catholic San Francisco)
July 23, 2019
Christina Gray
Catholic San FranciscoBishop Robert F. Christian, OP, was eulogized by a longtime friend and fellow Dominican as a world traveler who “lived for others,” intentionally seeking out new experiences and encounters with others as he moved toward his ultimate destination with God.
“Connecting with the locals, be it in the Dominican community or with a student priest, he would always say it was a wonderful way to get a sense of our own destination,” said Dominican Father Alejandro Crosthwaite, homilist at Bishop Christian's funeral Mass July 23 at St. Mary’s Cathedral.
“This fundamental connection between love and friendship was essential in understanding who Robert Christian was and how he journeyed with Christ throughout his life and throughout the world,” he said.
Bishop Christian, 70, died unexpectedly July 11 at his home at St. Patrick's Seminary & University in Menlo Park. He was ordained June 5, 2018, as the 18th auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and had served as the seminary's rector-president since January.
Cardinal William J. Levada, 11 bishops and nearly 100 priests and deacons joined members of the Dominican community, interfaith leaders and others at the morning Mass celebrated by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.
Archbishop Cordileone offered his condolences to Bishop Christian’s family including his brothers, Joseph, James, Michael, John and Thomas and his sister Mary Gloria Christian.
“You shaped the person he was,” the archbishop said.
Father Crosthwaite, an academic dean at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where Bishop Christian taught for more than 30 years, said the two shared a zest for traveling together to exotic places such as the Galapagos Islands, Istanbul and Machu Picchu in Peru.
He noted the difference between a traveler and a tourist and emphasized that Bishop Christian was the former in his journeys as well as his life.
Travelers, he said, intentionally choose the unknown over the familiar while tourists tend to be “pleasure seekers” who generally prefer comfortable, made-to-order experiences.
“The word travel comes from the same root as the word, “travail,” which means trouble, work, and sometimes even torment,” he said.
He called travel “the Christian life in miniature.”
“As we travel, we have a spiritual purpose and we grow in friendship and community with others,” he said. “We encounter, sometimes in surprising and unexpected ways, Jesus, along our journey.”
Father Crosthwaite said his friend's way of traveling and life journey serves as an invitation to consider whether we are “engaged travelers” or “passive tourists” on the journey of life God has given us.
“We should keep our sights always fixed not just on our next destination here on our earth, but we keep our eyes fixed as Bishop Christian did, on the fact that our destiny is eternal life and not just death,” he said.
At a reception following the service, Juan Carlos, a seminarian at St. Patrick’s, told Catholic San Francisco he considered Bishop Christian a “great role model as a priest.” He said Bishop Christian encouraged seminarians to include prayer whenever and wherever they can.
"I appreciated all that he gave to us,” Carlos said.
St. Patrick's classmate Gerardo Vasquez said Bishop Christian was a “joyful” man who was straightforward and optimistic. Every two weeks, he said, he held a rector’s conference, sat down with the students and gave his thoughts on the priesthood.
Father Charles Onubogo from Our Lady of the Pillar Parish in Half Moon Day recalled Bishop Christian’s talk on “forgiveness” to priests on retreat at Vallombrosa Center in Menlo Park just a few weeks before his death.
“He told a story about someone who wrote something about him that wasn’t true,” said Father Onubogo, and how he chose to “let that go.”
Father Anthony Rosevear, novice master for the Western Dominican Province in Oakland, said Bishop Christian introduced him to the Dominican order. They met as college students studying abroad in Italy, neither on a priestly track at the time.
After both completed their degrees and Bishop Christian entered the novitiate at St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland, Bishop Christian wrote his new friend a three-page typewritten letter detailing why he was well-suited to become a Dominican. “He listed point-by-point and he was right all the way through,” Father Rosevear said.
Deacon Chuck McNeil of St. Dominic Parish said Bishop Christian “was grounded in tradition but in many ways embraced the teachings of the Second Vatican Council."
And, Deacon McNeil added, “He was the most organized priest I have ever met.”
In addition to his siblings, Bishop Christian is survived by a large extended family that includes his brothers’ spouses, dozens of cousins and many nieces, nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.
Bishop Christian was laid to rest July 24 at the St. Dominic Cemetery in Benicia.