Monsignor Bruce Dreier dies
Less than two months into the “Year for Priests” declared by Pope Benedict XVI, one of the most respected and well-liked priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Monsignor Bruce Dreier, lost an eight-month battle with cancer and died Aug. 10 at the relatively young age of 60 at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco.
Archbishop George H. Niederauer was principal celebrant at a funeral Mass celebrated Aug. 18 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco for Monsignor Dreier, who was pastor of St. Robert Parish in San Bruno from 2004 until his death.
Concelebrants at the Mass included retired San Francisco Archbishop John R. Quinn, retired Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Wang, Auxiliary Bishop William Justice, Salt Lake City Bishop John C. Wester, Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh and Reno Bishop Randolph Calvo, who also presided at a vigil service at St. Robert’s August 17; and more than 100 priests.
Monsignor Robert McElroy, pastor of St. Gregory Parish in San Mateo, was homilist.
A graduate of St. Anselm elementary and Marin Catholic High School, Monsignor Dreier earned a graduate degree in Counseling from the University of San Francisco. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1978, and was named a Prelate of Honor with the title of Monsignor by Pope John Paul II in 2000. He served at parishes including St. Elizabeth and St. Cecilia in San Francisco before his appointment as pastor of Church of the Epiphany in 1992.
He also was a former chaplain to the San Francisco Fire Department, and Sacred Heart and Cathedral high schools as well as former director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and secretary, Office of Priestly Personnel and Formation.
In the days leading up to the funeral Mass earlier this week, Catholic San Francisco spoke with people who knew and worked with the late priest.
While they knew each other at St. Patrick’s Seminary, Monsignor Dreier and Monsignor Robert McElroy became friends when both served as young men at St. Elizabeth parish in 1979.
“Bruce was the associate pastor and I was a transitional deacon on my way to ordination and we became very close friends,” Msgr. McElroy said, beginning to laugh as he added, “We did an awful lot of stuff together. He had a great sense of humor and we played a lot of jokes on one another”
“Bruce was big-hearted and very much in the trenches working with the parishioners,” Monsignor McElroy recalled. “He had a lot of ideas and would be on the ground level trying to implement all of them. He had a great deal of energy and worked very hard. He emotionally entered into people’s lives. He wasn’t afraid to cry with people, celebrate joyfully with people, to be with them in very hard times. Bruce was very empathetic as a pastor and was full of life and enthusiasm.”
Smiling at the memory Monsignor McElroy said, “He’d always pick something that was crazy for a pastor to do. At Epiphany he ran the bingo ever Tuesday.”
Another of Monsignor Dreier’s “hands on” feats was Centerplate at AT&T Park where volunteers help in a concession booth and a portion of their sales benefit their organization. “He’d do all the assigning of people and schedules and help manage the booth. It was hard work. He liked doing it and he liked the Giants so he’d go a lot. Bruce was like that. These things were very important things to him.”
Monsignor Dreier “loved celebrating things,” McElroy said. “He was a good lively preacher always very down to earth. He was very goodhearted and would do anything for you.”
He also will be remembered as “a wonderful parish priest who loved his people in each of the parishes he served and in doing so became part of the lives of very many of the people helping to console them at the deepest levels when things went awry or tragedy occurred,” Monsignor McElroy said. “He also helped them celebrate all the joyous moments and became part of people’s families in a very real way.”
“In a spiritual and pastoral sense, Bruce lived life large,” Monsignor McElroy said. “He was a very effusive, outgoing, gregarious and faith-filled pastor.”
Retired San Francisco Archbishop John R. Quinn ordained Monsignor Dreier on May 13, 1978. “Monsignor Dreier embodied the finest qualities of the priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco,” Archbishop Quinn said. “He was a man of very strong faith, of prayer and unselfish service.”
“I have incredibly fond memories of Bruce – in the seminary and throughout our priestly lives together,” said Salt Lake City Bishop John C. Wester, who was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1976. “His loving heart was as wide as can be, and he possessed great wisdom and prudence. He was a real pastor who cared for his people and treasured his priestly calling, which allowed him to bring Christ to so many. On behalf of the faithful in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, I extend my deepest condolences to Archbishop Niederauer and the priests and people of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. May Bruce rest in peace.”
Franciscan Sister Sheral Marshall, who serves as pastoral associate at St. Robert Parish, also served with Monsignor Dreier in the vocations office of the Archdiocese of San Francisco from 1985-89.
“Monsignor Dreier was a good guy for sure,” Sister Sheral told Catholic San Francisco. “He had a very forward looking vision and knew what was important. Sister Sheral said the priest once told her his love of cooking came from each recipe’s having a “beginning, middle and an end” much different from work in ministry which is “mostly planting seeds,” she said.
Sister Sheral remembered Monsignor Dreier’s happiness at Masses for children where he would always ask them questions and “enjoy their most original responses.” She also recalled his wonderful homilies at funerals and how he now enjoys “his own resurrection.” He served on many archdiocesan councils and boards over the years, particularly in the areas of education, priestly ministry, stewardship and finance, and his impact on the wider Church through these efforts was substantive, Sister Sheral noted.
“Bruce was a great priest and very kind to me especially during some difficult times in my first years as pastor,” said Father Brian Costello, pastor of Mater Dolorosa Parish in South San Francisco. “He would call me and offer support and that’s the kind of guy he was. That he took the time to show his personal concern meant the world to me.”
Father Costello, who served on the Archdiocesan Council of Priests with Monsignor Dreier, said, “Bruce was a man who spoke his mind and I respected what he had to say because he spoke from experience. He often brought a different light to issues and offered invaluable insights. He was a priest’s priest, a fine, fine man who will be missed.”
Father Tom Moran, ordained in 1988 after a career as a labor representative, said, “I would not be a priest except for Bruce Dreier.” Now retired, Father Moran told Catholic San Francisco he had studied for the priesthood as a younger man, but it was Monsignor Dreier who helped Father Moran reconsider his vocation. “Bruce was very encouraging and supportive when I was hesitant about the seminary at this point of my life. He was an extremely good priest and gentle man who did an outstanding job in the parish.”
Musicians gathered from St. Robert Parish, Church of the Epiphany, and St. Cecilia Parish to lead song at Monsignor Dreier’s funeral Mass and vigil service. Russell Ferreira, music director at St. Cecilia’s and a parishioner of St. Robert’s, was cantor.
“Father Bruce will be greatly missed for his exemplary leadership as pastor, his involvement in all facets of parish life, his wonderful way with children and, of course, as chef for both the men’s club and women’s guild at St. Robert’s,” Ferreira said. “Father Bruce gave us all so much. We will be forever grateful.”
Father Roberto Andrey was appointed administrator of St. Robert Parish when Monsignor Dreier’s illness worsened in May. “Bruce was a wonderful person,” Father Andrey said. “I greatly admire his disposition in facing certain death. In his suffering he was so calm and accepting and never complained about the pain. He taught us how to face battling a terminal disease. Like Pope John Paul II, he lived a life of dignity to the end.”
Interment was at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Monsignor Dreier’s survivors include a sister, Joan Winquist, and brothers, Gordon and Paul.
