Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Monsignor Timothy O'Brien, who has been in St. Mary's parish for the past five years, is retiring.

St. Mary's Father Tim decides to slow down

By Sue Fagalde Lick

Monsignor Timothy O'Brien, senior priest at St. Mary's Parish for the past five years, worked hard to build a retirement home for priests in a former convent in Cupertino. This summer he's moving in.

Parishioners at St. Mary's will hold a retirement party for O'Brien on June 22 after the 5 p.m. Mass.

"He's developed quite a loyal following of parishioners at St. Mary's," said Lucy Avico, who is helping to organize the party.

Known as "Father Tim" to parishioners at the churches where he has worked, O'Brien, 68, has a reputation for telling jokes and being on the liberal edge of the church community.

Before coming to St. Mary's, he took a year's sabbatical to study small Christian communities, offshoots of the church which he describes as Catholic support groups in which church members meet to pray, talk and share their faith.

The result is a book, Why Small Christian Communities Work, coming out this spring from Resource Publications of San Jose. Former parishioner Margaret Gunnell offered her desktop-publishing expertise to help finish the project.

O'Brien is a firm believer in small Christian communities. "It's a way of experiencing faith not just from the head but from the heart," he said.

In his 42 years as a priest, O'Brien has seen many changes in the church and is glad about them. "I'm very pleased with the vision of Vatican II and how it has called us to be the people of God," he said.

Following his year off, O'Brien was assigned to St. Mary's. After years as a hospital administrator and then as pastor of St. Martin of Tours church, he has enjoyed having less stress here.

"This town is marvelous," he said, adding with a laugh that he may be the only Irishman who plays bocce ball with the Italians in town.

The walls of his cluttered sitting room at the St. Mary's rectory are lined with plaques and photos commemorating his years of hospital and parish work. Every table and shelf bears photos of couples he has married.

It has been a good life, he said. "If I had my life to live over, I'd live it just the way I've lived it."

The San Francisco native was ordained in 1954 at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. He went on to the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he earned a master's degree in psychiatric social work in 1958. On his return, he was made diocesan coordinator of health affairs, a position he held for 21 years.

"I was the health-care man," he said. He helped build Alexian Brothers Hospital in San Jose and St. Rose Hospital in Hayward and served as president of the California Hospital Association and the Catholic Hospital Association of the United States. From 1972 to 1979, he also was director of Catholic Charities.

"It was a great life. I was always traveling," he said. Many days, he would celebrate morning Mass, then go to his office and work until 10 p.m. One memorable day, he flew to Atlanta and back for an insurance meeting. His days were filled with administrative duties, lectures and meetings.

After 25 years as a priest, he decided it was time for a change and asked to be assigned to a parish. He was sent to St. Martin of Tours in San Jose. His major accomplishment during his 12 years at St. Martin's was a dramatic remodeling and modernizing of the church.

Plagued by ill health in recent years, he said he is glad to be free of the heavy responsibilities he bore for years. "I'm out of the administrative headaches and that's a blessing," he said.

Chairman of the Diocese of San Jose's priest retirement board since 1990, O'Brien was instrumental in building the residence for retired priests in Cupertino.

One of his first considerations was to enable priests to have a good retirement plan so they could live independently, he said. Retired priests in the diocese now receive almost $2,000 a month plus Social Security, he said. They also benefit from the companionship of living in retirement with other priests.

Although O'Brien is officially retiring, he is really only slowing down a little. He has been asked to help build another retirement home for priests and is considering a site in Palo Alto.

In addition, he will work with small Christian communities and market his new book, giving all the money he earns to the priests' retirement program.

He will also continue to perform weddings, baptisms and other priestly duties, but says with a smile that he won't have to show up for work every day. "You don't have to be there."