[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Pages 26553-26554]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     WELCOMING FATHER PAUL GRANILLO

  (Mr. BACA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

  Mr. BACA. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to welcome our guest 
chaplain, Paul Christopher Granillo of the Diocese of San Bernardino, 
and thank him for giving the opening prayer this morning. I believe he 
is the first Catholic priest from the San Bernardino Diocese to offer 
the prayer in the U.S. Capitol.

  Father Granillo, or Father Paul, as he is known, was born in 
Redlands, California and educated at the local schools there where I 
met him as a student where he was involved with the Junior Achievement 
program.

  He is part of a very proud Mexican-American family that has lived in 
that city for three generations. He is the eldest of two sons born to 
Richard and Connie Granillo. His younger brother, Carlo Granillo, is a 
police detective in the City of Fontana. This is a wonderful family, 
and I am sure they are proud to serve the Inland Empire communities in 
their respective ways.

  Father Paul attended Cal State University of San Bernardino and 
graduated with a BA degree in history where my wife, Barbara Baca, Joe

[[Page 26554]]

Baca, Jr., and his wife, Jennifer Sanchez Baca, also graduated from. He 
received a Master of Divinity from St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, 
California and a License in Canon Law from Catholic University here in 
Washington, DC.
  Following his ordination in May of 1997, he served as a parish priest 
in Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage and Riverside, California.
  He is now assigned to Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, and he 
currently serves as Priest Secretary to Bishop Gerald Barnes and as the 
Communications Director for the Diocese of San Bernardino and Riverside 
Counties in California.
  Father Paul is very active in the greater San Bernardino communities, 
providing services and counsel to growing Hispanic communities.
  We were recently together at a Catholic charity event. In addition to 
his church activity, he is an avid golfer where he and Father Howard 
Paul and Joe Baca, Jr. and I have had the privilege of enjoying a 
friendly competitive round of golf against one another. And I tell him, 
Father Paul, the Lord cannot always guide your golf ball in a straight 
direction because he wants you to know the feeling of the lost sheep 
that was lost, but found the right path.
  I thank Chaplain Coughlin for his kind invitation to Reverend 
Granillo to offer this morning's prayer. I thank Father Paul for 
traveling to our Nation's capital today to be with us. God bless him, 
and God bless his family.

                          ____________________