New Evangelization Strategies
Fr. John Hurley, C.S.P.

Paulist Fr. John Hurley is a consultant and missionary for New Evangelization Strategies.

He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

A native New Yorker, Fr. Hurley was raised in Manhattan, the Bronx and Huntington, Long Island, NY.

He entered the Paulist Fathers in 1970 and was ordained in 1977 by Servant of God Terence Cooke.  He earned a B.A. in Religious Education from the Catholic University of America, a Master of Divinity degree from the Washington Theological Union and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.

Among his many assignments for the Paulist Fathers, Fr. Hurley served as pastor of Old St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, CA; administrator of St. Austin Church in Austin, TX; executive director of the Paulist Fathers Office for Financial Development; director of Paulist Reconciliation Ministries; coordinator of strategic planning; and as a pastoral associate at St. Philip Neri Church along with founding the Paulist Center for Catholic Evangelization in Portland, OR.  He also served for more than 20 years on the Paulist General Council.

Fr. Hurley also has worked extensively in evangelization leadership roles for the larger Church in the United States.  He was executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Evangelization, where he served for almost nine years.  He also led the New York City-based National Pastoral Life Center and the Archdiocese of Baltimore Department of Evangelization.  His service in Baltimore included co-chairing the Mid-Atlantic Congress for Catholic Leaders. 

In 2014, Fr. Hurley launched New Evangelization Strategies. Through this ministry, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Fr. Hurley helps diocesan leaders, parish leaders, councils and others create a new paradigm for evangelization moving from maintenance to a more effective mission driven focus.  In this capacity, he also conducts parish missions, leads retreats and speaks on evangelization across the country.  NES also included his work with the Diocese of San Jose where he served as Vicar for Evangelization and the Diocese of San Diego where he coordinated two diocesan synods, on Embracing the Joy of Love in 2016 and, on Young Adults in 2019.  

Fr. Hurley continues to speak on evangelization and gives workshops, parish missions and retreats across the United States.  In 2016, during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Fr. Hurley was delegated as a Missionary of Mercy which was renewed in indefinitely the following year.

To reach Fr. Hurley, please e-mail [email protected] or visit www.paulist.org/NES

You also can find him on FacebookTwitter and Pinterest.