Priest reaches out, locally and across the seas
Pastor a pillar to families of students killed in balcony collapse
OAKLAND — Aidan McAleenan was reading prayers on his iPad that June 2015 morning and getting ready to begin his day as pastor of St. Columba Catholic Church when a message flashed on the screen that would demand all his emotional and spiritual strength as a priest.
“Are you on your way to the hospital?” a friend asked from more than 5,000 miles away in Ireland, where McAleenan was born and grew up.
“I thought to myself, ‘What
“This is the most loving, welcoming community that we have ever been a part of.”
— Rich Laufenberg, Moraga resident who travels to Oakland with his wife for services each week
are you talking about?’ ” McAleenan said.
The priest soon learned that six college students — an American and five others from Ireland visiting the Bay Area on summer work visas — had been killed when a balcony collapsed while they were attending a birthday party in Berkeley early in the morning of June 16, 2015.
McAleenan spent the following days and nights visiting the injured in the hospital and comforting the families who made the long, sad journey from Ireland to bring the remains of their loved ones home.
African symbols
For McAleenan, the pain still cuts deep, despite a year having passed since the students lost their lives. But reaching out to others, especially his mostly African-American congregation, gives him comfort.
It’s what the 53-yearold has done since arriving at St. Columba in August 2008.
Step into McAleenan’s church on San Pablo Avenue, and you will notice displays not usually found in a Catholic church named after an Irish missionary who lived 1,500 years ago.
The glass front doors feature symbols from West Africa that represent God and peace. Another African symbol for God that McAleenan built out of wood hangs nearby. A black Jesus, crafted by an artist from Ghana, hangs above the altar. Statues of Mary and Joseph are painted black.
“Everyone is struck by the black Jesus,” McAleenan said on a recent morning as he walked through the church.
White wooden crosses, each representing an Oakland homicide victim, are displayed outside St. Columba. A large “Black Lives Matter” banner hangs near the front doors.
McAleenan’s congregation includes people from as far as Vallejo, San Jose and Livermore.
“This is the most loving, welcoming community that we have ever been a part of,” said Rich Laufenberg, who travels with his wife from Moraga to attend Mass at St. Columba each Sunday. “Everyone participates. It’s not like other churches.”
McAleenan was ministering at Fremont’s Holy Spirit Church when he learned he had been appointed pastor at St. Columba.
“I said to myself, ‘Where is St. Columba?’ ” he said.
After learning that much of the congregation was African-American, McAleenan signed up for a summer class on African-American spirituality at Xavier University in New Orleans before beginning his new duties.
“If you go to St. Patrick Church on Mission Street in San Francisco, it’s all Irish,” McAleenan said. “It has Connemara marble from Ireland and 32 windows, one for each Irish county. The Irish built it, and they wanted it to reflect them. That’s what I wanted with this church, for the people who worship here to feel it’s their home.”
McAleenan moved the Stations of the Cross, which depict Jesus on his way to crucifixion, behind the altar and replaced them with paintings of individuals who represent social justice. Among them are Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day and Oscar Romero, the assassinated Salvadoran archbishop.
McAleenan began making the changes two years ago during a $600,000 renovation of the church, which was built in 1960. The original church was founded in 1898.
To help pay for the work, McAleenan took up the challenge of a lawyer who had learned about a nun’s charity work at St. Columba and wanted to help: Attend a boxing boot camp in San Francisco and get a $4,000 donation. The priest donned gloves and stepped into the ring for several months.
“The work that Father Aidan did to transform the space inside the church was truly amazing,” said Michelle Batista, who has been attending St. Columba for about a decade. “He’s also reached out and built strong relationships with our neighbors, the people who live and work near the church.”
McAleenan was studying for the priesthood in Ireland in June 1987 when he secured a visa to work in the U.S. for the summer, the same type of visa that the Irish students killed in Berkeley had received.
His personal struggle
The visa was almost a sign: McAleenan was wrestling with whether he truly wanted to be a priest. He ended up in San Francisco, and after his visa expired, he stayed here. He was undocumented for five years.
During that time, he worked in homeless housing in San Francisco, where he also opened the city’s first AIDS hospice. He bought a house in the Oakland hills.
But the priesthood still called. In the summer of 2003, he approached fellow Irishman, Seamus Genovese, then pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Oakland.
Within a few months, he was attending St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park.
McAleenan was ordained a priest in June 2005. That same year, his father committed suicide, his mother died from a stroke and his brother died from a heart attack.
“It was a difficult time,” McAleenan said. “But at that stage, I had more life experience, and I like to think that I was able to bring all of that to the priesthood.”
McAleenan drew on that experience to support the families of the Irish students killed in Berkeley, especially when they came to St. Columba and the coffins containing their loved ones were opened.
“I have never felt as heavy a room, of the anticipation of what they were about to see,” McAleenan said. “(But) you do what you need to do. You find yourself that you have a strength, and you get through all of the things.”