It seems like yesterday that I drove from Berkeley to Stanford to talk about coming here to serve as Director of the Catholic Chaplaincy. Actually it was in 1994. I was interviewed by virtually everyone who could be around to ask a question. I was not at all certain about the whole venture. When I arrived for the interviews I was informed that my chances were slim, as the position had been designed for none but Jesuits. That was OK by me. I had taught many Jesuits in Berkeley and have the greatest respect, admiration and gratitude for all that this incredible religious order has done for the Church. When the committee chair called me the next day to say that the group had decided unanimously to offer me the position I was both surprised and delighted. I confess that in spite of my many years in Berkeley I had always dreamed of working at Stanford. I was a bit worried, however. Our Province was going through a planning process and I was responsible for it. We had agreed that there would be no new assignments during this process. So, here I was, leading the study and facing the possibility of coming to Stanford. When I asked our Provincial he decided to ask the entire Province so he wrote and asked every community or every friar to respond with an opinion. All but one said GO FOR IT! The one, tongue in cheek, suggested that we not accept the offer because, he thought, we should not be chaplains at a place where none of us could get in. He was actually pretty happy when he realized that we already had four of the PAC 10 and this would give us five. Thus began the Dominican era on the Farm.

Ordinarily our time in one place is no longer than ten years and even an assignment that long is unusual. I have had the blessing and privilege of being here for thirteen years. In a university that is nearly four generations. In that time I have been fortunate enough to preside at nearly three hundred weddings and baptized numbers of children. It is at that point where I am now baptizing the children of former students whose weddings I have blessed. What a thrill! There has been nothing about this position that has not been a thrill. Celebrating Mass, preaching, listening to hundreds of confessions, listening to just plan problems and attempting to offer help in finding a solution, working with faculty, administrators, staff, undergrad and grad students and post-docs, athletic teams, the band, the Diocese of San Jose and so much more has made every day a great blessing for me. I can't imagine doing anything more exciting and rewarding. But all good things do come to an end.

About three years ago I started to plan the best way to move on when the time came. I figured that anyone coming to take my place would need to have some experience and some flexibility. I wanted the person to share my ecclesiology (theology of the church) and I wanted him to be a good preacher and administrator. In our Province of 175 or so Dominicans one face came to mind. We serve in a dozen universities in the west from Washington to Arizona and the director in Arizona, Arizona State specifically, was the one who seemed to possess all that I hoped for and more. So I began suggesting to Fr. Nathan Castle that he should be thinking about Stanford down the way some. My hope was also that Fr. Carl would either still be here or would return when the day came for me to move on. I thought that they would make a good team and, thanks be to God, it is precisely what has happened. Effective 1 July, Father Nathan will become the Director/Pastor of the Catholic Community at Stanford and effective last Sunday Fr. Carl returned to take up his position as the Associate Director/Associate Pastor. I am so happy about this and feel that I am leaving our community in wonderful hands. Years of experience, a love of the Academy, good preachers and much more make it, in my opinion, a wonderful way to go.

In the next few months I will continue to be around but will be here a little less often than before. I am not going far so I hope to maintain contact with many of you. But it is very important for me to disappear so that my successors can assume their proper places leading the community. I have been assigned to serve as Director of Vallombrosa Retreat and Conference Center in Menlo Park and to direct the Office of Ongoing Formation of the Clergy for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Vallombrosa serves about 10,000 people a year with retreats, etc. and the Clergy Formation position gives me the responsibility for the various programs for the local clergy. This means graduate school, sabbaticals, workshops, retreats and the like for about 250 or more priests. My office will be at Vallombrosa and I will continue to be a member of our Dominican Community there. Our house is just across the street from the retreat center. I will continue to help with weddings when asked and to fill in for the staff when they are involved in other things. I won't have any trouble keeping busy.

There is no doubt that I will miss Stanford. I will always be a CARDINAL now (the only one possible for me, thank God) but will root from a distance. I am sure that some people will find their way to me if they want anything and I will continue to respond. I will miss dealing with the University itself and in learning how this incredible place works. I will miss feeling that I belong to this grand community and, most of all, I will miss the students. There is nothing that makes me happier than to know that I may have been there for someone when I was needed. Sitting in my office for confessions or just for chatting never tired me. Being able to preside at beautiful liturgies, well planned and with wonderful music, and to preach at MemChu is the realization of a life-long dream. But in the end it always comes back to the students, present and past, and the contact I have had in the thirteen years of service on the Farm. The best way I can thank all of you for my years here is to promise my prayers, promise to respond if I am ever contacted and to leave a healthy, loving, generous community with good leadership behind me.

I have come to be very attached to an expression that I use often: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! I have said it often in public and in simple conversations. I say it again now. No, it's not about you. Rather, it is about you in relationship with others. I have always believed in the saying that hung once for an orientation: Come to learn, Leave to serve. I hope that all of us in the Catholic Community have opened the doors to the kind of service that makes the world better. So, this is NOT about me. No, it is about me with a great community that I have had the fortune to serve for many years. Thank you for this privilege and be sure of my prayers and blessings always. I'll see you around through June and then I hope to see you from time to time at Vallombrosa.

With Love and Gratitude,