Three priests with decades of service to the diocese will retire this month: Father John Myles, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Maxwell; Father Aidan O’Reilly, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Mount Shasta; and Father Glenn Dare, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Portola.

Father Aidan O’Reilly

For Father Aidan O’Reilly, being a priest has always been about getting out and ministering to people, helping them live out the sacraments of their faith.

When the current pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Mount Shasta officially retires Sept. 15, he will leave a job working with a community of people he affectionately compares to “sitting in a tub of butter.”

“Everything about St. Anthony is indicative of a parish that takes pride in itself,” said Father O’Reilly, who planted a prize-winning rose garden with his replacement in mind. “I always thought whichever priest comes after me will think he died and went to heaven.”

Born and raised in County Caven, Ireland, Father O’Reilly chose a vocation to the priesthood as a high school student, using as his model a local priest who was dedicated and passionate about his work.

Following his ordination in 1960 in Waterford, Ireland, Father O’Reilly’s first assignment in the diocese that same year was as parochial vicar at St. John Vianney Parish in Rancho Cordova.

He described his first experience as a young priest as “blessed and rewarding,” thanks to people who were “very affirming” and the pastor at the time, the late Msgr. Richard Dwyer.

“(Msgr. Dwyer) was exceptionally kind and helpful as I was getting started and prepared me for future assignments,” Father O’Reilly said.

Other assignments as parochial vicar followed at St. Dominic Parish in Orland, Sacred Heart Parish in Red Bluff and St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Vallejo. He was named pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Burney in 1974.

Lucille VonTersch, a member of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, has known Father O’Reilly since his assignment at the Burney parish from 1974 to 1993. VonTersch will not forget the Irish priest’s kindness traveling daily from Burney to a hospital in Fall River Mills, where he brought Communion to her late husband.

“He was a very dedicated and caring priest who was just like family,” said VonTersch, who also enjoyed the Irish priest’s “great good humor.”

She recalled that when Father O’Reilly discovered statues of Mary and Joseph in the church basement he set about remodeling outdated confessionals into a meditation alcove for the statues.

“He said he didn’t think Mary and Joseph liked being relegated to the basement,” VonTersch said.

Another favorite memory is of watching the beauty of pigeons Father O’Reilly raised fly out of their hutch “like a white cloud into the sky.”

With her pastor’s retirement day quickly approaching, St. Anthony parishioner Bianca Pastega knows there is much she will miss when the pastor with the Irish brogue celebrates his last Mass.

“He is a very holy priest,” she said. “When you’ve been to one of his Masses, you know you’ve been.”

She said that even while keeping up with a busy schedule of community hospital visits or stopping at a senior care center, Father O’Reilly makes time for people.

“He likes to put his face in the door at bingo,” said Pastega, who shared insider information about her pastor’s love of sweets. “He will tell you which lady makes the best cake.”

A going-away party, complete with cake, was held at St. Anthony Church on Aug. 22.

After incoming pastor, Father Michael Canny, former pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Redding, takes over Sept. 15, Father O’Reilly plans a trip to Ireland. Upon his return, he will help out in the diocese filling in for pastors as needed.

Father John Myles

Father John Myles

Myles has served in parishes from Roseville to Mount Shasta.

Sent out as a newly-ordained priest from Ireland in 1964, Father Myles arrived at his first assignment at St. Joseph Parish in Auburn on a mission to convert people to Catholicism.

Testimony of his success in this regard is the fact that people from parishes he has served throughout the years are lining up to be present for a party celebrating his 40th jubilee and retirement from Sacred Heart Parish in Maxwell on Sept. 4.

But Father Myles says that soon after he learned it’s safer in California to drive on the right side of the road instead of the left, as in his native town of Castlemaine in County Kerry, he made a far more significant discovery.

“Priests come from all over Ireland to convert people, but I think people convert priests,” Father Myles said. “There’s so much goodness in the laity of the church today.”

From the moment a missionary priest visited Father Myles’ second grade class and asked him what he wanted to be in life, his response was immediate and clear.

“I said I want to be a priest, and I didn’t even know what it was to be a priest,” he said. “It was there in my heart.”

Joyce Polansky, a member of St. Joseph Parish where Father Myles served as parochial vicar from 1964 to 1966, said she has no doubt her former pastor made a wise vocation decision.

“Father Myles is like somebody you knew all your life,” said Polansky, who remembers fondly the young Irish priest who was often a guest in her very active household that included 12 children. “He always had time for you and stood for what was right.”

Following assignments as parochial vicar at St. Rose Parish in Roseville and St. Joseph Parish in Lincoln, Father Myles was appointed pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Mount Shasta, where he served from 1978 to 1993.

He recalled fondly the years spent with “the wonderful people of Siskiyou County,” where one of the joys was living in a magnificent setting “looking up at 14,000 feet of mountain.”

St. Anthony parishioner Woody Wood, who served Mass with the church’s former pastor “just about every day,” said Father Myles seemed to be everyone’s friend.

“He knows everyone by their first name and always calls you by your first name,” Wood said. “His goodness and prayers for my wife when she was sick kept her going.”

As pastor at St. Anthony and following assignments at St. John Parish in Quincy and Immaculate Conception Parish in Downieville, Father Myles logged many miles and unforgettable moments driving to rural churches in the winter over icy roads.

“A few times when I was traveling on black ice I knew I had a guardian angel,” said Father Myles, who remembers skidding into the backyard of a residence on his first snowy trip to Mount Shasta.

For people such as Sacred Heart parishioner Kathy Riordan, a eucharistic minister and religious education teacher at the parish, the sadness of saying goodbye to the retiring pastor is tempered by the fact that he is retiring to Maxwell and will remain living in the rectory.

“Since (Father Myles) arrived here eight years ago, he has epitomized welcoming,” said Riordan, whose husband’s grandparents were among the founders of the Maxwell parish established in 1910.

“He’s an important part of our whole community. We’re real happy the bishop has allowed him to retire here,” she said.

Sacred Heart’s new pastor, Father Francisco Hernandez-Gomez, will administer the parish, and its mission churches in Arbuckle and Stonyford, from Annunciation Mission Church in Williams.

While Father Myles, who celebrated his 67th birthday on Aug. 30, will celebrate Mass at Sacred Heart when he is home, he is looking forward to doing some serious traveling in the coming months.

There is a trip to New York to visit cousins, a tour of the New England states and journeys to Ireland and Spain later this fall.

“I’m not retiring from the priesthood — just looking forward to new experiences in my life,” he said. “Wine gets better with age and I plan to do the same.”

Father Glen Dare

Father Glenn Dare

Since joining Holy Family Parish in Portola more than 50 years ago, Jerry and Agnes Gervais have worked beside a fair share of pastors.

For much of that time Agnes served as treasurer of the church’s altar society while her husband Jerry was busy training the church’s altar servers, about 45 at last count.

Both have already been thinking about the difference their current pastor, Father Glenn Dare, who retires Sept 30, has made since his arrival at Holy Family in 1998.

“He’s a standout pastor with the ability to get things done,” said Jerry Gervais, 90, who described the priest as his best friend. “We’re going to miss him terribly.”

Among Father Dare’s accomplishments at the Plumas County parish is providing strong leadership for a fund-raising campaign to fund reconstruction and enlargement of the church.

In addition to “putting things back in the black” financially, Agnes Gervais said, the priest has a way of “personalizing” his homilies so that “you feel you’ve made it to heaven.”

Betty Folchi, another member of Holy Family, said what many people appreciate most about Father Dare is the “cohesiveness” and a unified spirit felt energizing church communities both at Portola and at Holy Rosary Mission in Loyalton.

“Father Dare has had tremendous success pulling the parish together,” said Folchi, who has also observed significant growth in the parish’s religious education program.

Father Dare, who was ordained in 1974 in Colfax, began his ministry serving in the Diocese of Reno.

His assignments in the Sacramento Diocese include serving as parochial vicar at Saints Joseph and Teresa of Avila Parish in Auburn from 1995 to 1997, and at St. John the Baptist Parish in Chico in 1998. He was then appointed pastor of Holy Family in Portola in 1998.

Nat and Delia Giuliani, members of the Auburn parish, appreciated Father Dare both as a priest and as a friend.

“He’s a great conversationalist — a very good friend and priest,” said Nat Giuliani, who has known Father Dare since he was ordained.

The couple credits their former priest as well with nurturing the Auburn parish’s devotion to the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, still scheduled every Thursday.

More than 200 people attended a retirement party held in Portola for the retiring pastor on Aug. 15 at Holy Family Parish Hall.

Father Dare plans to live in Colfax and will continue ministering in the diocese through participation in the senior priests’ program.

Father James Walsh, currently pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish in West Sacramento, has been appointed pastor of Holy Family Parish.

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