Marin Voice: Remembering a thoughtful, reflective Catholic leader known for critical thinking
In today’s polarized world, people who excel at reconciliation are especially welcome.
Bishop Francis Quinn, who died in 2019, was one of these people. He also happened to be a good friend of my mother and father. Both of them were devout Catholics. Thus, when they purchased their first and only house in San Francisco in the late 1950s, it was natural for them to invite one of the local priests to come over to bless it.
The priest who accepted the offer was known at that time as Father Quinn. After the blessing, he left a signed holy picture in the house. It occupied a prominent place in the living room until both my parents passed away. All of us came to know him quite well in the ensuing decades.
What I remember most about him were his calm and friendly demeanor and warm smile. Quinn was what many in the Catholic Church call a truly “pastoral” priest, one who was first and foremost concerned with the needs of the people around him.
In addition to blessing houses, he readily engaged in conversations with the local parishioners. Now and then, he could be seen playing ball with the children in the nearby schoolyard.
Quinn was also thoughtful and reflective. As winds of change swept through society and the church in the 1960s and 1970s, he did not hesitate to express his views on controversial topics. He was an avid practitioner of what we would now call critical thinking.
He openly questioned the wisdom of requiring priests to be celibate, advocated more help for AIDS patients, protested the death penalty, spoke out against existing immigration policy and worked for nuclear disarmament.
He also sent letters to two popes expressing his disapproval of efforts to canonize Junípero Serra. Serra, who died in 1784, has been accused of mistreatment of Indigenous peoples during his time on the West Coast. In 2020, protesters tore down a statue of Serra at Mission San Rafael. Last month, the Marin District Attorney’s Office reduced charges against the demonstrators, which evoked a strong negative reaction from some Bay Area Catholic leaders.
One might think Quinn’s efforts to provoke discussion would lead to punishment from his superiors. However, he was acting fully in the spirit of the church’s Second Vatican Council, which encouraged it to become more responsive to the needs of people in the modern world.
Rather than being suppressed, Quinn was promoted. In 1962, with the title of Monsignor Quinn, he was named editor of the Monitor, the official Catholic newspaper of San Francisco. In 1978, he was consecrated as an auxiliary bishop of the city. The following year, he was made bishop of Sacramento.
Once in the state’s capital, Quinn did not seek to curry favor with the governor or the legislature. Quite to the contrary, he immediately devoted himself to those he saw as most worthy of his attention – the city’s homeless population. On many evenings, he could be found on the K Street mall, as he sought to understand the needs of unhoused people and attend to them the best he could.
In 1993, he officially retired, becoming a bishop emeritus. Yet his ministry did not end. What he expected to be a short visit to Arizona ended up becoming 13 years of work with the native Tohono O’odham people near Tucson.
When he returned to California in 2006, he was invited to celebrate Mass to commemorate the founding of Mission San Rafael. In the homily he gave on that occasion, he apologized to the Coast Miwok people for the treatment that they had received from the missionaries and lamented the lack of respect shown to their spiritual practices. Although some people were surprised by this, it was entirely consistent with the rest of his life’s work.
Quinn was 97 when he died. Because he is no longer with us, we cannot say exactly how he would have reacted to the current controversy over the Serra statue in San Rafael. However, we can be pretty sure that he would have tried to meet the deepest human needs of all the people involved.
Paul da Silva, of Larkspur, is a member of the College of Marin Board of Trustees.