CALIFORNIA
National Catholic Reporter
Dan Morris-Young | Oct. 8, 2013
Sulpician Fr. James McKearney has been forced to resign as rector and president of St. Patrick Seminary and University in Menlo Park, Calif., a surprise event some call an appropriate change in leadership and others decry as “brutal” and “confusing.”
McKearney’s sudden removal by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone stunned students and faculty and the Sulpician himself.
“It just came out of the blue for reasons that are still not clear to myself or my provincial,” McKearney told NCR.
McKearney said during the school’s annual gala Sept. 14, Cordileone insisted on a 2 p.m. meeting with him two days later — a Monday — at the seminary. During the gala, Cordileone publicly thanked McKearney for his leadership and labors.
Cordileone, San Jose Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Daly and San Francisco Vicar for Administration James Tarantino met with McKearney on Sept. 16 and left him no option but to resign, according to McKearney, who had been president-rector since 2009 and at the seminary since 1999. The seminary currently serves 93 students from more than a dozen dioceses, most based in California.
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