Monsignor Peter O’Reilly to retire

By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

Peter O'Reilly

Monsignor Peter O’Reilly, the founding pastor of St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church in Westlake Village, has announced his retirement.

O’Reilly, fondly known as Father Peter by the tight-knit parish community, said he will retire June 30. He plans to move to Pilgrim Place, a retirement community for Christian leaders that has operated in Claremont, Calif., since 1915.

St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church began as a neighborhood parish in 1992, with masses led by O’Reilly at a small auditorium inside Oak Hills Elementary School in Oak Park.

The church’s first Christmas was celebrated at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also in Oak Park.

When the parish quickly outgrew the space, O’Reilly arranged to rent space next to Pavilions Center while it worked to build a larger church on the corner of Lindero Canyon Road and Kanan Road.

The capital campaign, "We Are Church, Together We Build," epitomized O’Reilly’s philosophy of church—the people were the center of the parish and their dedication to God and their community represented the church more than the building.

"My greatest joy is my renewed awareness that the people are the church," O’Reilly said. "That drove everything. The building was secondary."

Vincent Tomkovicz, a deacon and parish manager of St. Maximilian, said, "As the founding pastor of the parish, he will be missed for many reasons."

O’Reilly’s leadership brought the parish together in the early stages of building the church, he said, but other factors contributed to the tremendous success of St. Maximilian Kolbe.

"The other thing is his personality, which is always very outreaching, warm and welcoming," Tomkovicz said.

Tomkovicz said that O’Reilly had a knack for taking a deep interest in the individual.

"He knows them not just by sight, but with a personal interest in their lives," he said.

What started as an 800-family parish has grown to nearly a 2,000- family parish, due in part to O’Reilly’s engaging manner and ability to make parishioners feel comfortable and welcome.

Born and raised in Ireland as the youngest of nine children, O’Reilly was ordained as a priest in 1961. He moved to Los Angeles in 1954, heading St. John the Evangelist Church, in Los Angeles. He served as pastor of six other parishes before coming to Oak Park and Westlake Village.

Paula Kruer, director of Kolbe’s Korner preschool at St. Maximilian’s, said, "He is a wonderful man. He’s always gone out of his way to make people feel important and really special."

She added that O’Reilly has embraced modern views about family and community.

"He really tries to make families an important part of the church community," she said. Having the preschool on the premises was important to him, she added.

O’Reilly said that moving to a retirement community will allow him to stay active in his faith but be less burdened by the day-to-day details of running a large parish. "If I don’t, in a sense, plan it, it will be planned for me," he said.

O’Reilly will, however, continue to serve as a traveling priest, helping out wherever and whenever he is needed.

His retirement plans also include travel. O’Reilly said that he looks forward to taking a sabbatical to travel throughout the United States, and back to Israel.

In 1995, he participated in an archeological dig at Bethsaida, located on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Bethsaida is meaningful to O’Reilly because it was the home of three of Jesus’ disciples, Peter and his brother Andrew, and Philip.

He added that it may have been the birth place of James and John as well. A small plain that surrounds Bethsaida (el-‘Araj) may have been the location of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Studying scripture in Rome is another retirement goal.

Lauren Arso, an altar server at the church since 1999, said, "I like him because every time in church when he told a story, I could relate it to real life."

"I think that he has a gift for making people realize that they are gifts," said Tomkovicz. "He has the ability to bring out the best gifts that people have, and encourages them to use the gifts in service to the Lord. When they do that they grow spiritually and personally," he said.

As for the church, Tomkovicz said that one of O’Reilly’s goals was to open the church to the community at large, which he did.

"It’s always been his dream that once the complex was built, that it would be more than just for us," he said. "We do concerts, we allow people to use the center and enjoy the facilities."

O’Reilly successor will be announced in April.

"It’s been a wonderful experience, wonderful working with the people," O’Reilly said. "It’s our church."