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The Catholic Marin Breakfast Club gathered for the final time May 3 in the St. Sebastian parish hall in Greenbrae. After 25 years, the inter-parish group is shutting down because of dwindling attendance and lack of new, young members. (Photo by Christina Gray/Catholic San Francisco)
May 10, 2019
Christina Gray
Fridays won’t be the same for a small community of Marin County Catholics.
The Catholic Marin Breakfast Club, founded by a local parishioner in 1994 to bring local Catholics together one Friday morning a month for Mass, a speaker of interest to the faithful and breakfast, gathered a final time on May 3 at St. Sebastian Church in Greenbrae.
“It was a great 25 years,” said Denis Ragan, a longtime parishioner of St. Patrick Parish in Larkspur and the engine behind the long-running organization that hosted more than 200 meetings on a wide variety of topics and presented more than 175 speakers, clerical and lay.
Ragan, a self-described “cheerleader” for the local faith community, announced in April that the club was coming to a close because of dwindling attendance due to aging and the death of members. It has been generally unable to lure new, young members, he said.
In its heyday, up to 80 Catholics attended the monthly events; in recent years, perhaps a few dozen.
“Part of it also is that I’m getting tired,” said the 85-year-old Ragan with a smile at the podium in the St. Sebastian parish hall where 15 cardinals, bishops or archbishops have stood to talk to the membership.
“What I remember most was the large crowds at a weekday Mass, almost like the old days on first Fridays,” said Ragan, who lives in Corte Madera with his wife of 55 years, Linda. “I thought, wow, there are people in this church today who would normally not be in this church or any other church today.”
Parishioners of nearly all Marin County parishes were part of the meetings that always more centered on liturgy and fellowship than business networking, unlike some other Catholic breakfast clubs or business associations.
The Marin club was never intended to serve as catechesis or formation but more as enrichment of faith and intellect. Some speakers were Catholic, some were not.
Ragan recalled visits by former Gov. Jerry Brown, the late local screenwriter Carter B. Smith, Marin Independent Journal reporter Dick Spotswood and Mary Jane Burke, the Marin County superintendent of schools.
“Mary Jane is as Catholic as Catholic can be,” said Ragan, and brings her faith to her role as head of the Marin County’s public schools. Her presentation was called, “Confessions of a school superintendent.”
Dominican Father Xavier Lavagetto was a big draw as much for his wit and wisdom as pastor at the time of St. Dominic Parish as for the fact that his father “Cookie” Lavagetto had been a baseball legend.
Jesuit Father Joe Eagan, a former educator at the University of San Francisco and for years in residence at the St. Anselm and St. Patrick rectories, was a perennial favorite with members, the majority of whom belonged to those two parishes as well as to St. Raphael, St. Rita, St. Rita and St. Isabella.
One of Ragan’s favorite speakers was the daughter of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who commanded all land and sea forces in the central Pacific during World War II. She was a Dominican nun.
“Admiral Nimitz looked like a naval officer like no other naval officer ever looked,” said Ragan, himself a retired naval officer. He was moved that the admiral’s daughter spoke little about her father’s military accomplishments, which are considered legendary by many.
“No, it was none of that,” said Ragan. “It was his character.”
Some in the community he helped cultivate stood to good-naturedly toast and roast Ragan.
St. Patrick’s parishioner Judy Stanzl said she and Ragan “go way back to St. Agnes School” in San Francisco. Ragan teased the younger Stanzl by saying “she was a few years ahead of me” and she shot back that Ragan “didn’t do too well there.”
“We’re like family,” said St. Raphael parishioner Mike Killelai. “This was a Catholic family get together once a month.”
ST. ANDREW PARISH VINCENTIANS: On the last Sunday in April, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the U.S. celebrates Ozanam Sunday to commemorate the society’s founder Blessed Frederic Ozanam, and its patron, St. Vincent de Paul. Members of the St. Andrew Conference at St. Andrew Parish, Daly City, attended Mass together April 27 to renew their commitment as Vincentians and to receive a blessing from pastor Father Piers Lahey.
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