Vocation Discernment
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Vocation Office
Western Dominican Province
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618-1626
(510)-596-1821
Our Vocations require a great deal of support, from the first moment they begin their novitiate until the last moments of their retirement. Please do conside visiting our donation page and helping form and sustain the priests and brothers who will serve you in the future, serve you now and have served you in the past.
Saints and Blesseds
The Order of Friars Preachers,
The Dominican Order,
has a beautiful history of learning, service and holiness manifested in its saints and blesseds of every age since its foundation by St. Dominic de Guzman. Do enjoy the periodic postings of such stories as are available from various sources, especially our own archives.
Religious Retirement
Our elderly and infirm friars receive the best care we have available to us, as in any family. We rely heavily on the donations of others for our own existence and thus when one of our own becomes incapable of further ministry due to age or infirmity, those same donations help us support the sometimes necessary special care required by such members of our communities.
We prefer to care for our elderly and infirm in our own houses so that the life of a religious community can be a part of a friars life as long as possible. This is also the most economical in many ways. We strive to use donations wisely. But sometimes a care facility is essential. As we, as a Province, do not benefit from the national collection for retired religious, we ask that you assist us in caring for these friars who have prayed, taught, served and ministered for so many years amomg the people of the Western United States and beyond.
Please, in your kindness, consider assisting us in this work of brotherly love.
Many thanks in advance.
Catholicism
It's just the right thing
Fr. Alphonse Peter Riley, OP
There are not many records remaining for Fr. Alphonse, but an unpublished work that was given to the archives as a gift reveals the exchange between the Western Dominican Archives and a Br. Ambrose Carroll Moorman, who compiled a family record in 1987. This work was named "Margaret K. Moorman and Her Irish Ancestors." The following is an excerpt from pages 30-31:
Father Alphonse was first stationed at St. Dominic's Church, Benicia [California], in 1885, and at St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco in 1886. He became Sub-Master of Novices at Benicia in 1889 and then Prior of St. Dominic's, San Francisco from 1891 to 1894. He was appointed Pastor of Holy Rosary Church, Antioch from 1903 to 1913 and then served at St. Vincent's, Vallejo [California] from 1913 to 1915 when he was assigned to Holy Rosary Priory in Portland, Oregon. He was back in Vallejo in 1923 and in Portland again until 1928 when he went back to Benicia. Due to health reasons he retired on October 31st, 1931 being a partial invalid residing yet at Benicia. On October 23rd, 1932 he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died the next day at 2 p.m. at Providence Hospital, Oakland, California.
Funeral services were held from St. Dominic's Church, San Francisco on October 26th, with a Solemn Mass celebrated by the Very Rev. James B. Connolly, O.P., Provincial. Interment was at Benicia where his sister was to be buried.
One Dominican that knew him towards the end of his life remarked that "He was very laconic in his speech, and usually spoke with one or two words. He still had a sense of humor though." This was about the same impression my mother had of his sister, Letitia.
I remember hearing much about him from one of his former novices and my grandmother....He was involved in an auto accident at one time at the Veteran's Monument near Pleasant Hill, California and although he himself was not hurt badly, the sister of Fr. Lamb, O.P. was killed. The cause of the accident is unknown.
Sources: Dominican Archives, Oakland, CA., CA State Death Rec., Catholic Sentinel, November 3, 1932, Portland, OR.
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
September 19, 1855 |
June 19, 1878 |
September 20, 1884 |
October 24, 1932 |
XII: 45