Jun 26, 2008

Menlo priest bids goodbye to his flock

Pastor James Garcia diagnosed with cancer; heading to monastery

By Christine Morente / Bay Area News Group

Pastor James Garcia will wave off gifts and goodbye cards, but he will accept your prayers.

"Say three Hail Marys for me so that I do what God wants," the 64-year-old said recently.

On Sunday, Garcia will celebrate his final Mass and then leave the congregation as quietly as he arrived 12 years ago at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Menlo Park.

"It's not about the pastor who is going away," Garcia said. "It's about Jesus."

Starting July 1, Pastor Fabio Medina from St. Peter's Church in San Francisco will lead the congregation.

Garcia's next journey will take him to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville, Utah. He will live as a volunteer among the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or Trappist monks, who follow the Rule of St. Benedict, focusing on manual work, separation from society and silence.

Garcia said he will stay as long as his health lasts, or as long as he's allowed to stay. In February, he was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer.

Garcia is on his fourth week of daily radiation treatments at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center. He'll finish up his treatments in August. So far, he has not felt any side effects.

"I decided that I've come to a time in my life where God must become the one thing necessary," Garcia said. "For me, that means taking a step into silence, solitude and ... prayer."

Betty Steidel, a volunteer at St. Anthony's, recognized Garcia early on as "a big man with a quiet presence."

"I think he's a very holy man," she said Wednesday. "Now it's time for him to be where he wants to be."

Born and raised in Oakland, Garcia was an only child. At 13 years old, he decided to attend a Redemptorist minor seminary in Oakland, at a time when it was common for teens to enter the seminary right after grammar school.

Garcia said his mother was sad because she wanted grandchildren, while his father was quietly proud.

He was 25 years old when he felt ready to become a priest while studying at Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary in New York. Garcia was ordained a year later in 1970.

In July 1996, then-San Francisco Archbishop William Levada assigned Garcia to St. Anthony's. Previously, he was at St. Peter's Catholic Church in San Francisco.

Garcia was struck by how intensely Catholic the Menlo Park congregation is. He was accustomed to congregations where the parishioners were older and white. These worshippers had a "California" approach to their practice, he noted. "(They) don't get in a sweat about religious things," Garcia said. "There are many things to do on Sunday, and (they) try to fit church in."

He said that's not the case at St. Anthony's. The parish is made up primarily of younger families, and they come from Michoacan, Mexico.

Seven of St. Anthony's eight Masses are in Spanish. The other is in English. The church has maintained a Sunday attendance of about 3,600 people.

Garcia said the congregation's passion for the Catholic faith comes from memories of religious persecution in Mexico. From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, President Plutarco Calles closed down Catholic schools, confiscated church property, expelled church missionaries, and nationalized the goods of the church. Priests, nuns and lay people were murdered.

"These people are the inheritors of the faith of their grandparents," said Garcia of his parishioners. "They not only believe, but they practice."

And being their pastor has been gratifying for him.

"I feel 100 percent realized," Garcia said. "People ask my advice. They are always ready to confess their sins. They baptize their babies, they pray for their dead, and they come for the day of the Lord."

Garcia is pleased that the congregation will now have Medina to lead.

"Fabio is an affable man with a sense of humor, a ready smile, and he will work easily with the parishioners," he said.

Medina was an associate pastor at St. Anthony's 15 years ago.

This weekend, Garcia will be honored with a proclamation from the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said a spokesperson for Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson.

Garcia has played an active role in the North Fair Oaks community and in the county.

His legacy includes opening St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room during lunchtime Monday through Saturday to feed thousands of people, and allowing the use of church facilities for residents and surrounding communities.

Next week, Garcia will move into Vallombrosa Retreat Center in Menlo Park before leaving for the monastery.

Garcia said he does feel a little sadness after realizing much of his life is going to change, but he has no regrets.

"I feel so much in my own skin as a priest," he said. "I don't feel I've missed anything because the happiness I have is the evidence I chose correctly."