Father John Hurley, CSP, named administrator in Austin

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Father John E. Hurley will be leaving his sabbatical to take up the post of Administrator of St. Austin Church and acting superior of the local Paulist community Dec. 4th.

Father Hurley takes over in a difficult time at St. Austin after the unexpected death of its pastor, Father James Wiesner, CSP, on Nov. 18th.

Father Hurley entered the Paulists in 1970 and was ordained in 1977. He graduated from Catholic University with a bachelor’s degree in religious education, a master of divinity degree from the Washington Theological Union and a doctor of ministry degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.

He served as founding director of the Paulist Center for Catholic Evangelization in Portland, Ore., from 1978-1984; director of development for the Paulists from 1984-1991; pastor of historic Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco from 1991-1997.

He was appointed in 1997 to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., where he served as executive director of the Secretariat for Evangelization. In this capacity, he oversaw ongoing implementation of Go and Make Disciples, A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States. During his time at the USCCB, he served as a consultant to the bishops’ committees on the Jubilee Year 2000, Encuentro 2000 and Catechesis.Father John Hurley

Father Hurley coordinated the strategic planning for the Paulist Fathers beginning in 2005, and in 2006 founded Paulist Reconciliation Ministries based in Washington, D.C. He then served as executive director of the National Pastoral Life Center in his hometown of New York City until July 2009.

He left the NPLC in July 2009 to take a well earned sabbatical. During his sabbatical he continued to speak before parish, diocesan and national church leadership. He finishes his term on the Paulist General Council in May 2010 and will continue to serve as a consultant to the USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis through November 2011.