Meet: Father Bernie Quinn, CM

Father Bernie Quinn, CM, gets around. Since his
ordination in 1972, he has served in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles; Camarillo and Santa Barbara, California; Burundi (Central Africa); inner city New Orleans and Los Angeles; and now the farming town of Patterson, California. And he has felt at home in each.

Originally from Chicago, Fr. Quinn is the second youngest of 10 children. The family made a connection with the Daughters of Charity early on that remained strong even after the family later moved to the suburbs. Since there was no Catholic high school near their home, he took the train into downtown Chicago everyday to attend Cathedral High School. He eventually found a second home at the cathedral rectory, where he worked and stayed after school and year round.

He discovered his vocation while attending Loyola University. “Although I didn’t know any Vincentians at the time, I knew the Daughters of Charity.
In fact, three of my older sisters had joined the Daughters. The Vincentian Family was a perfect fit for me,” he says.

After ordination, he worked at Queen of Angels High School Seminary in Los Angeles, St. John’s College Seminary in Camarillo, and St. Mary’s Seminary in Santa Barbara for nine years.

Then Providence took him in a different direction. After a year in France,
he spent three years in Burundi as a parish priest. “It’s been 25 years since
I returned, but it seems like yesterday. It was a great area for evangelization. Fathers Clay Kilburn and Jim McOwen, CMs, and I worked alongside the Daughters of Charity until political instability made it impossible to stay,”
Fr. Quinn recalls.

When he returned to the U.S., he spent three years at the Congregation of the Mission novitiate in a poor area of New Orleans, a time he also remembers fondly. “Living and working among the poor while involved in CM formation was a wonderful experience, and some of my happiest years.”

In 1989, he returned to Los Angeles for a variety of assignments. He served as pastor of St. Vincent’s Parish for six years and then as Provincial for another six. Fr. Quinn arrived in Patterson, a small town 85 miles southeast of San Francisco, in 2003. As pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, he works with Father Mike Walsh, CM, and Brother Ken Lund, CM, to serve a culturally diverse community.

“I’ve lived so many places and done such different types of work,” he says.
“As I look back, some experiences were easier, some were harder, but all have been a part of the Providence of God for me. My experiences have deeply enriched me as a person and as a Vincentian.”