[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 71 (Monday, May 23, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   A TRIBUTE TO FATHER MARTIN MORONEY

                                  _____
                                 

                         HON. DANIEL E. LUNGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 23, 2011

  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
recognize and honor Father Martin Moroney, who is retiring this month 
from his pastoral responsibilities at St. John Vianney parish in Rancho 
Cordova, California. A native of O'Callaghan's Mills, Ireland, Father 
Moroney chose to enter St. Patrick's College Seminary in 1960. St. 
Patrick's forms priests for overseas work and Father Moroney chose to 
come to the Sacramento Diocese because its rural nature reminded him of 
Ireland. Arriving in Sacramento in 1967, he has spent the past forty-
four years serving Californians. After a brief stint at St. Mel's in 
Fair Oaks, he moved to St. Anthony's in Mt. Shasta, a small lumber town 
in the Cascade Mountains. For the next six years he served at St. 
Theresa's in South Lake Tahoe before returning to Sacramento to serve 
at Sacred Heart and then All Hallows.
  In 1981, Father Moroney was given the opportunity to return to a 
rural community when he was asked to become the pastor of St. John's in 
Quincy, while also taking care of the mission church in Greenville. For 
twelve years, he drove twenty-two miles each way to Greenville twice a 
week to care for the community there in the mountains of Plumas County. 
Quickly integrating into his new community, he was even recruited to 
work the first down chains at local high school football games.
  Father Moroney has always been a man of prayer. When he was faced 
with a difficult decision in 1993, he turned to God for guidance. 
Giving up his rural post in Quincy, where his parish consisted of 250 
families, he decided to assent to his bishop's request to move to a 
parish in the suburbs of Sacramento, consisting of 1,500 families. 
There, at St. John Vianney's, Father Moroney has been serving as pastor 
for the past eighteen years. Under his guidance, the parish has grown 
in unity and diversity, adding a Spanish and an Indonesian outreach 
program. He also proved to be a skilled financial manager, eliminating 
$200,000 of debt and growing the parish school endowment dramatically.
  All of these achievements are not just material achievements. They 
were motivated by a heart filled with compassion for all people and 
accomplished by a man willing to sacrifice himself--and even his 
health--for the betterment of others. It is truly a privilege to offer 
Father Moroney my sincere gratitude and congratulations for all of his 
service as a priest. I wish him all the best in the coming years.

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