The story of a priest's tumultous, challenging journey toward his place in the church. This is a biography of Father Virgil Cordano, now the spiritual and administrative head of Santa Barbara's Old Mission. His poignant journey and personal and spiritual issues mirror the tumultous times for his beloved Catholic Church. Father Virgil, through all his tests, is committed to his religion, his family, and his community. Includes discussion of the emerging freedom of the Catholic lay community, the shifting winds of change within the church, and the agonizing effects of the sexual abuse crisis.
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About the Author
Mario T. Garcia is Professor of History and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and teacher in the Department of Religious Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso,18801920 and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
We are born of a mother to be born of God. Fr. Virgil Cordano Our mothers are so much a part of our lives that when they die there is left behind an immense gap in us. I can’t think of any family member’s death that affects us more than that of our mothers. Our mothers gave us life, nourished us, and lovingly cared for us until their deaths. This is how I felt when my mother died in 1973. My mother’s death forced me to reflect on all that she had meant to me. I said her funeral Mass and delivered the eulogy. I said a few words but it was difficult. I wasn’t up to giving the kind of eulogy that my mother deserved. I have no remembrance of what I said. I think I expressed my admiration of and gratitude to her. If I could speak that eulogy now I would praise her motherly love and care for me. Over the years, I have come to be in reverential awe of the vocation of a mother. Maybe the deepest expression of human love is that of a mother for her children. It is the ultimate model and inspiration of the giving of one’s very self to others. She lives her life tenderly caring for those born of her love and her flesh. She cherishes the life of her children more than her own life. Children are an extension of her self. Her love is both joyous and sacrificial. Maybe we can say that the affectionate love of a mother is the originating source from which all other kinds of love are developed. She is the first one to love us. It is also the initially experienced love that points the way to our understanding of God, who is Love. We are born of a mother to be born of God. We are loved into existence by a mother to come to experience all other loves, especially the fullness of love in God. Often, especially at the baptism of a child, I reflect on my early days of infancy and subsequent years of growth. I (and all of us) was entirely depended for the satisfaction of my needs on the love of my mother. Even now she lives, ever new she loves and cares, one with the heavenly love of God. Life and love never die. They are eternal because they are of God. I am grateful that I am loved and that I can love in return. We buried mother at St. Mary’s cemetery in Sacramento.
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