Fr. Aidan McAleenan, our Associate Pastor, was ordained on Friday, June 3rd, 2005 as a priest of the Diocese of Oakland by Bishop John Cummins in his home parish in Ireland. His journey to the priesthood has taken a lengthy path. At 19 he joined the Redemptorist Order to study philosophy and history at the University of Galway followed by two years of theological study in Dublin. After that he left the Redemptorists and came to the U.S. as an exchange student. His first work was in grounds maintenance, construction and as a special education teacher. In 1988 he became administrator of a new hospice with Catholic Charities of San Francisco; he oversaw the operation of another facility in the Western Addition for five years and then became administrator of a complex for families in the Tenderloin. After that he served as supervisor of ten facilities sponsored by Mercy Housing. In January 2001 he enrolled at St. Patrick's Seminary as a student for priesthood in the Diocese of Oakland; his pastoral year of field work was done nearby at St. Bonaventure's Parish in Concord."

Sr. Joanne Gallagher, our Pastoral Associate, was born and raised in Oakland, and entered the Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet after graduation from Holy Names High School. She has done graduate work at St. Mary's College, Santa Clara and Holy Names College. She has served in a number of parishes in Northern and Southern California. Most recently she served as principal at St. Perpetua's School in Lafayette for eight years and then for the past 18 years she was principal of Our Lady Queen of Angels School in New port Beach. Her responsibilities here will include welcoming new parishioners, integrating volunteers into parish life, developing a new Parish Directory, serving as liaison and resource to "Lifeworks" and, I'm sure as time goes on, much, much more.

Mrs. Linda Basman, Principal of Christ the King School, grew up in Bakersfield with studies at U.C. Irvine (Social Ecology), worked with the Orange County Probation Department and for five years with Bank of America. She and her husband, Chris, moved to Martinez and joined our parish in 1983. Their son Ryan (25) and daughter Sara (21) are graduates of our parish school where in addition to many hours as a volunteer mom, Linda and Chris served as co-presidents of PTG and Linda chaired our annual parish Auction. With teaching credential from Cal State, Hayward, Linda taught for seven years at St. Isidore's School in Danville. Over the past four years she has been principal of St. Joseph's School in Pinole. We are delighted to welcome her as parishioner, friend, experienced Catholic educator and our new school principal.

Sr. Maureen Viani is our Director of Religious Education, responsible for developing and directing our Christian education ministry for over 900 youngsters from PreK through 8^th grade. As a Holy Names Sister she has taught at a variety of parish schools before coming to Christ the King. They include St. Theresa’s and St. Leo’s in Oakland, St. Raymond’s in Dublin (CA) as well as schools in Venice (CA) and San Anselmo.

Fr. Michael Dibble helps us on weekends on a regular basis; he presides at masses, preaches and assists with baptisms as a "weekend associate." Michael was born in New York City (1934) and ordained for that Archdiocese (1960). He served as an associate pastor in upstate New York from 1960 to 1964; then, from 1964 to 1992 he taught at High Schools in Poughkeepsie and Newbury and at Cathedral Prep in Manhattan. His final assignment was seven years at St. Peter's Church in the World Trade Center and Wall Street area. He has just retired this summer and moved to California to be closer to his brother and family.

Fr. Brian Timoney retired from his position of full-time priest-Associate Pastor on January 1st, 2001, but remains in residence at our parish house and is most generous in helping out when he is here. A native of Ireland, he served as a Redemptorist Missionary for sixteen years in India before coming to the Bay Area. As a priest of the Diocese of Oakland since 1976, he has been Pastor at three parishes (St. Perpetuas, Lafayette; St. Johns, San Lorenzo; and St. Stephens, Walnut Creek). He joined our staff in January, 2000 after two years as Associate Pastor at Corpus Christi, Piedmont.

Joan Smits serves as our Associate Director of Religious Education. Along with Sr. Maureen Viani she helps prepare and coordinate our volunteer teachers and Religious Ed ministry from PreK through 8^th grade, and for older first communion and older baptism youngsters. Joan brings great skill and a great spirit to our ministry which includes Sunday mornings for babysitting, PreK and Kindergarten, and weekday afternoons and evenings Monday through Thursday for other grade levels.

Al Garrotto serves as a part time Associate on our parish staff. A free lance writer and author by profession (see his web page), Al coordinates our Bereavement Ministry, and supports small church and faith sharing communities. He helps with Adult Education and some of our pre-baptismal sessions for parents. Al also is coordinator for the RCIA Program (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). Al works with an excellent team of parishioners who give of their time to support those who participate in the process along the way from inquiry to full membership in the church.

Kate Doherty has been our Youth Minister since August 2006. She comes to us from St. Brigid and Sacred Heart Parishes (which merged as part of the Boston area reconfiguration plan) in Lexington, Massachusetts. There she was responsible for coordinating a Confirmation program for approximately 300 students and a very extensive Youth Ministry program which included peer ministry, a weekly youth group meeting, a monthly Youth Mass plus retreats, community learning events and social events. She has also been pursuing a Masters Degree in Pastoral Ministry from Boston College. We welcome Kate and really look forward to working with her.

Helen Christian, our Assistant in Youth Ministry, has joined us as part-time staff. She has been on our staff since early October of 2004 and continues to make a great contribution and welcome presence in continuing and stabilizing the ministry.

Fr. Tom Burns is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco who now resides in Pleasant Hill and helps us at weekend liturgies. Tom served for years as Chaplain to U.C. Medical Center in San Francisco and as pastor of St. John of God Parish. For ten years before his retirement he served as Personnel Director of St. Anthony's Dining Room and Foundation in San Francisco.

Marilyn Joost is our parish secretary whose job description is endless and she does it all with great skill and a marvelous disposition. Her tasks include bookkeeping, organizing parish mailings, editing and producing our weekly bulletin, compiling countless parish, diocesan and civil reports, registering everything from new parishioners to newlyweds, handling constant inquiries and supervising our clerical volunteers.

Martha Evanson, known to all of us as "Meta", is an absolutely indispensable part of parish life at Christ the King. As "housekeeper" her job description goes well beyond shopping, laundry and preparing meals. She is often the first person to meet you at the door or answer the phone. She is regularly the one with all the information either on current activities or parish history.