After completing 12 years of Jesuit formation, I was ordained in 1979 by Bishop Francis Quinn, auxiliary of San Francisco, who ordained me and five others at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. That summer I was here at SFX for about two weeks and it was here I celebrated my first English wedding. Does anyone know if Eli Enriquez & Denise Javinelli are still married?

My life as a Jesuit (I often describe myself as an “off-the-rack” Jesuit; unlike most Jesuits, I have no extra degrees, no additional letters after the “S.J.”) began with a perfect assignment -- as pastor to a tiny Mexican parish in Santa Ana, California, Our Lady of Guadalupe. How Spanish-speaking was it? There was only one scheduled English Mass a week!

Unlike today when vocations to religious life normally are second careers, the vast majority of my novice classmates in 1967 were right out of high school.

The novitiate is a two-year formation program during which time the man’s vocational discernment is centered around the question: is God calling me to be a Jesuit priest or brother? This discernment is tested by means of various experiments, the most important of which being the thirty-day Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

During the first year of my novitiate in 1968, a rather casual comment made by a visiting priest from the province office greatly impacted my future ministry. The priest was speaking to us novices informally when he said something to the effect, “If you guys were smart, you’d learn Spanish because by the time you are ordained, it will be very important.”

I am happy to continue a tradition here at St. Francis Xavier of submitting a weekly letter to the parishioners. This is a practice I am not used to; however, I welcome this new challenge. I thought that since I am new, I would spend my first few letters with autobiographical information, highlighting important moments in my life as a Jesuit (52 years) and as a priest (40 years).

I am a proud second generation San Franciscan, the second of three children. My sisters, now both g randmothers, both live in the Bay Area. Our household was a traditional Catholic one with all of the typical devotions of the 50s and 60s. I was a faithful altar server of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass. By means of the loving sacrifices of our parents, my sisters and I attended Catholic grade and high school.

Unlike today, it was quite common during those years, and especially in such a Catholic town as San Francisco, for each boy and girl who attended Catholic school to consider, at least once, the possibility of religious life.

It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Fr. Bob Fambrini, S.J. as the new pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish Community. Come by Anderson Hall on Sun, Aug 11 after the 9:00am School Family Mass and introduce yourself to Fr. Bob and to our new principal Ryan Watson.

Please join Ryan Watson, Principal of St. Francis Xavier Jesuit Elementary School on Sun, Aug 11 in Anderson Hall Room D. He looks forward to meeting you alongside Fr. Bob Fambrini. Please continue to pray for Ryan's success as our school's new principal.