Msgr. O'Malley to celebrate 91st birthday
Msgr. James O’Malley might never have heard the vocation call but for a suggestion from a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at San Francisco’s St. Paul Elementary School when he was in eighth grade. Msgr. O’Malley celebrates his 91st birthday in October and 65th year as a priest in 2011.
“I grew up in the Mission,” Msgr. O’Malley told Catholic San Francisco. “St. Paul’s is the only parish I knew.” Msgr. O’Malley was born on Church St. and his dad, Frank, a San Francisco firefighter who retired as a lieutenant after 45 years, served just doors from their house at a Duncan St. fire station. “My dad just walked around the corner to work,” he said. Msgr. O’Malley’s mom, Mary Genevieve, born in Mayo, Ireland, died when he was four and his dad later married, Auntie Win, his mom’s sister.
“The nice thing was that after my mom’s death, the fire department left my dad on Duncan St. so he could be close to home if we needed him,” Msgr. O’Malley remembered. “My Auntie Win came to live with us. It was a big old house and we had an extra room. My aunt could not have been a better mother. She and my dad later moved to Clipper St. with a bigger lot. My dad, born in Galway, was a farmer and raised potatoes and parsnips until the day he died.”
“I wanted to be a milkman in Boyes Springs,” Msgr. O’Malley said, remembering the thought with a smile. One day, however, that all changed when he was asked by his eighth grade teacher at St. Paul School to stay after school.
After cleaning the blackboards and erasers he started to take his exit. “When I was walking out the door she said, ‘Oh James, by the way, tell your mother I think you should go to the seminary.’ I just froze and when I got home told my mom.” After all, his brothers, Frank and Joe, now deceased, went to Sacred Heart High School and Msgr. O’Malley hoped to follow them there.
At a meeting later with St. Paul’s pastor, the now late Father Cornelius E. Kennedy, the possibility of a vocation in the young O’Malley was explored. “Kennedy loved the kids,” Msgr. O’Malley said. “He picked me up and told my mom ‘Jimmy will make a great priest.’”
Msgr. O’Malley’s mom, trusting the nun’s and priest’s suggestion, took her son to the now-closed St. Joseph Minor Seminary in Mountain View a few weeks later. “She wanted to see the place, meet the people in charge and find out what was expected.”
Msgr. O’Malley joined the freshman high school class at St. Joseph’s and on his first day his mom said, “I want to see your room.” She inspected the dorm-like facility and inspected the mattress her son would sleep on. “She did not like the condition of the mattress and demanded I get a new one,” Msgr. O’Malley said. “She never missed a visiting Sunday in all the time I was there,” he said, “and she’d always bring me a big angel’s food cake. She died just a year before I was ordained.”
The whole family, as many as 15 or 20 people, would make the trips to St. Joseph Minor Seminary to see seminarian O’Malley on those once-a-month visiting Sundays. Picnics were the order of the day.
“My mom would have chicken and turkey and food for all my cousins and aunts,” Msgr. O’Malley said. His Irish aunts loved the idyllic setting of the school. “My aunt Margaret loved the country and she’d say ‘Seamus’ – my name in the Irish house – ‘you’re lucky to be here. I could sit here forever.’”
Msgr. O’Malley said he “loved it” at the seminary. “Once I got there I never had a bad night,” he said. Though many of the students cried themselves to sleep with homesickness, Msgr. O’Malley took to the seminary right away.
“I loved the kids, I loved the place,” he said.
Summers at the family cottage in Boyes Springs were nothing but fun, Msgr. O’Malley recalled. “The minute school was out my mother wanted to get us out in the sunshine,” Msgr. O’Malley said, recalling that from morning to night with breaks for meals he played and ran and swam. Always part of the day for the young future-priest was Mass. “I made an effort to go to Mass and would hitchhike into Sonoma,” he said. “Even as a boy, Christ was very much alive to me.”
His years at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park were marked by “very good professors” and “an appreciation of being treated as an adult,” he said. “I loved life at the seminary. They were happy years.”
Msgr. O’Malley brought his closeness to Christ and a desire to “be with people and helping people” to his priesthood. His special devotion to visiting the sick was enhanced, he said, from his own experience when his ordination was delayed for two years by tuberculosis.
Assignments have included St. Gregory Parish San Mateo, St. Patrick Parish in San Jose, and St. Michael Parish in San Francisco. Msgr. O’Malley was named pastor of San Francisco’s St. Kevin Parish in 1967 and served there until retiring in 1993.
“My priesthood has been wonderful for me, a joy” Msgr. O’Malley said. “The people are wonderful to us. I thank God every morning and every night. I pray for strength every day to be a better priest.”
Msgr. O’Malley liked adapting to the changes in the Mass and wider Church brought on by Vatican II. “Vatican II has helped the people participate more fully in the Church,” Msgr. O’Malley said. “I think that’s tremendous and has brought us priests closer to them. I marvel at the dedicated deacons we have now as well as women and men readers and Eucharistic ministers. Think of all the people at home who would not receive the Blessed Sacrament without them.”
Television serves Msgr. O’Malley only for sports and the news. He says the rosary daily with a small group of residents at Nazareth House in San Rafael where he has lived since March 2008. He calls the facility “heaven” noting “the food is great, the people are great, everything is great. Everyone is so kind and gentle and they will take care of us until the day we die.”
Msgr. O’Malley concelebrates Mass daily with fellow residents including retired Msgr. Joseph Sullivan, retired Msgr. Richard Knapp, retired Father William Knapp and retired Father Wilton Smith. His day off as a parish priest was Wednesday. “I always played golf,” he said. Foursomes on the links often included retired Father Jack Kavanaugh, now living at Serra Clergy House, and the now late Father Warren Woods.
Msgr. O’Malley’s sister, Pat, is also now deceased. A sister, Cecile Toomey, lives with her husband, Tim, in St. Pius Parish in Redwood City.
“I’ve never had a bad day all of my life,” Msgr. O’Malley said. “God’s had his arms around me all the time. I’ve been blessed.”
Marie Annuzzi, parish secretary at St. Kevin Parish in San Francisco for more than 40 years, remembers Msgr. James O’Malley who served as pastor at St. Kevin’s from 1967 to 1993.
I have more than 40 years of memories with Msgr. James O’Malley stored up. It all started October 1967 when he first arrived at St. Kevin’s in Bernal Heights. St. Kevin’s did not have a secretary but many of us volunteered so a few days after our initial meeting Msgr. O’Malley came to our house and asked me to help in the office a couple of hours a day, a couple of days a week. Well, the rest is history. He’s retired and I’m still there.
From day one Msgr. O’Malley was easy to work with and as calls kept coming in from parishes where he had previously served including St. Patrick’s, San Jose, St. Gregory’s, San Mateo, St. Michael’s, San Francisco, we knew we had a special person. He had a following and no wonder.
It wasn’t long before he was calling St. Kevin’s parishioners by their first names. He was always warm and welcoming. St. Kevin’s became the center of activity for all Bernal Heights, which was very important for the inner city at that particular time. The introduction of summer opportunities for school-age children, Head Start and then pre-school programs, English classes, parish picnics, festivals and senior lunches before the Neighborhood Center was built were all connected to Msgr. O’Malley. To this day, young and old alike stop by the rectory and ask for him. To say he was “loved” is an understatement.
For me personally, I can honestly say that we became and still are “family.” Throughout all these years we have shared the happiest and saddest moments. We have celebrated each other’s birthdays, anniversaries and any other happy occasion that came up. Msgr. O’Malley was no stranger to our family parties and dinners. He baptized one of my grandsons and other babies in the family. He married one son and was present at the other one’s wedding. He married our nephew and was also present at my grandson’s wedding. He was with my husband, Mel, and me for our 25th, 50th and 60th wedding anniversaries. He enjoyed our Tahoe home with his friends. These were very happy times.
We also mourned with him the deaths of his family members and brother priests. Msgr. O’Malley was present in the hospital room when both my mother, my father and Mel’s mother died and he celebrated their funeral Masses. Though retired, he also con-celebrated Mel’s funeral Mass.
This is a 40-plus year connection I wouldn’t trade for anything. To this day every visit and every phone call with Msgr. O’Malley is a trip down the most precious memory lane.
By Tom Burke
From August 27, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
