June 23, 2005

Father George Mancha to leave St. Anthony’s Catholic Church at end of month

Father Warwick James of Santa Clara’s St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Church will succeed Mancha

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Father George Mancha will leave St. Anthony’s Catholic Church July 1 to join Archbishop Mitty High School’s clergy.
The 55-year-old priest has been serving Almaden’s second largest Catholic parish for eight years. He will work at the Catholic high school helping with its liturgical needs and providing counseling.

Father George Mancha, pastor of Almaden’s St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, stands next to the parish’s patron saint, Anthony of Padua. Father George will leave the parish at the end of the month after serving eight years. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

Father Warwick James, who’s been presiding at St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Church in Santa Clara for 14 years, will succeed him.

“It’s been an absolutely wonderful experience,” said Father George from his parish office during a recent Sunday afternoon interview. “I’ve grown to love the people here so much.”

Father George will celebrate his last Mass June 26.

The priest’s reassignment came from San Jose’s Catholic Diocese, which traditionally keeps pastors in parishes for a guaranteed six-year period.

“When they called and said, ‘let’s go to lunch,’ I knew what that was,” said Father George. “It’s a mixture of emotions. I love this community. I love the people, but I’m also excited because I’m going to something different. I believe God guides us in the direction that He wants us to go.”

Father George was called as pastor of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in July of 1997. He came from St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Palo Alto.

According to church members, he will be remembered best for his homilies or sermons in which he tried to make Biblical scriptures come alive for parishioners so they could use them in their lives to solve problems.
“My goal was to make them walk away with a question,” said Father George. “My goal was to make them think about their faith and about the things that God has given them.”

To help his parishioners understand God’s word, Father George was also known for using humor, stories and his personal experiences during his church sermons.

“He’s a dear friend and we’ll miss him,” said Ed Day, a parishioner at St. Anthony’s for eight years. “He was a real person and we as lay people could relate to him and his message.”

“Father George is not the most outgoing person, but on a one to one person he’s been extraordinary,” said longtime parishioner Mary Lynn Elkins, who’s responsible for the church’s bereavement ministry and is also head of the church’s outreach committee. “He will definitely be missed.”

On one occasion, Father George related, he helped worshippers better understand the apostle Thomas, whom he calls “doubting Thomas” by asking them to put themselves in his shoes. “I wanted to know how they would feel if Christ had appeared to everyone else except themselves,” he said. “It’s not wrong to doubt unless we quit looking. When we doubt we have questions that help us learn.”

Saying goodbye to the more than 650 parish families at St. Anthony’s will be difficult, he said, as he’s grown close to them throughout his years at the parish.

When Father George began serving at St. Anthony’s, he immediately felt welcomed and included in the parish community, he said.

The parish will continue its strong religious education program and its active senior group.
Father George said he would caution Father Warwick to watch the parish’s finances, because during the summer, contributions decrease. He also advised the incoming priest against making any changes for, at least, a year to better learn how the church’s organization works.

Father George
The oldest in a family of eight children siblings, Father George is originally from Houston, Texas. Growing up, he attended parochial Catholic schools. He went to St. Thomas Catholic High School in Houston.

Father George Mancha, pastor of Almaden’s St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, will leave his worship community at the end of the month to join the clergy of Archbishop Mitty High School. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

When he was going to enter high school and was preparing to attend a junior seminary, he caught hepatitis, which forced him into isolation for 30 days. It was then that the young George discovered his lifelong calling for the priesthood.

He earned a business marketing degree from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

After graduating from Lamar, he wondered if he could support himself. He supported himself through school by working in restaurants and hotels. He then owned a bar. That’s when he said he was again faced with the question of what to do for a life calling. He said he immediately knew the answer would be the priesthood.

After being ordained a deacon, he moved to San Jose where former San Jose Roman Catholic Bishop Pierre DuMaine, now retired, ordained him a priest in 1988.

Father George also has a master’s degree in divinity from the University of St. Thomas in Texas.
“It was so hard leaving my family and my friends. Packing my car and coming across the country was so difficult, but it’s been a wonderful journey,” he said. “The church is not just the priest, the hierarchy, it’s the people. We’re all here to assist and guide each other.”

For more information on St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, 20101 McKean Rd., San Jose, Calif., 95120, call (408) 997-4800, or log onto www.churchstanthony.com. Masses are celebrated Sundays at 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m., and 11:45 a.m., at the McKean Road building. A Saturday Mass is celebrated Saturdays at 4 p.m., 21800 Bertram Rd., New Almaden, Calif., 95042.