Pastor praises parishioners
Father Larry Goode celebrated 45 years as a priest June 15. The Redwood City native has recently been appointed to his second six-year term as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in East Palo Alto.
“I’m happy about that,” Father Goode told Catholic San Francisco in the dining room of the parish rectory. “I like it here.” The parish is large with 1,800 families and almost 700 baptisms a year. Prominent ethnicities include Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and African-American.
Several of the weekend Masses are packed, Father Goode said, particularly those in Spanish. “The 9:30 Mass is filled to the brim,” Father Goode said. “The people are up in the choir loft and out into the hall all the way down the aisle” Similar crowds attend some of the other weekend Masses, too, Father Goode said. Four Spanish choirs and a Tongan choir are among parish song groups.
While parishioners tend to gather among similar backgrounds, participation by all parishioners is noteworthy, Father Goode said. “The people kind of travel on parallel lines,” Father Goode said but “are anxious to take part.” The nationalities blend, Father Goode said at major celebrations where attire of homelands is encouraged. “The Tongan women and men dress beautifully and the people really love it,” Father Goode said.
Fluent in Spanish for more than 40 years, Father Goode said immigrant parishioners are among those being hit hardest by the economy. “A lot of them have been hit by job loss, foreclosure and deportations but they have handled it very well,” he observed, offering that the resiliency in no small way comes from their faith. “I think relying on God is a major thing that gets them to the other side of that sadness.”
“The best thing about this parish is the people,” Father Goode said. “We hardly have to pay for anything. Parishioners see a crack in the wall and say, ‘I do marble. May I fix that?’ They help from the ground up. We had one man who cleaned and polished our church cross to a shine.”
Father Goode has taken the ‘Year for Priests’ to heart. “The way I see it is not a time to praise priests but a time for priests to be challenged and get off the dime,” he said with a chuckle. “We should be people of prayer, at least as much as the laity, and sometimes I think they do better than we do.”
The challenge also includes “taking time for reading and study and to really be priests and be available to the people. It is a time for the laity to be aware of the goodness of priests but also a time for priests to do some work. If we act in the person of Christ, we have to be Christ-like. When I say ‘This is my body’ or ‘I absolve you from your sins’ I realize this is something much bigger than me.”
A graduate of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Elementary School, Father Goode said priests who influenced him toward the priesthood include Father Eugene Duggan retired pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Sausalito. “He was one of many good priests we had there,” Father Goode said.
When asked for suggestions for the laity in this ‘Year for Priests’ Father Goode said “Pray. Priests need a lot of prayer.” Priests are people, too, Father Goode reminded. “We can always use encouragement,” he said. “I’m a priest who keeps on trying,” Father Larry Goode said about himself. “My priesthood is everything to me. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. This is who I am.”
From September 25, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
