Most Holy Redeemer Church in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, United States, is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

situated in

The Castro The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...

district, located at 100 Diamond Street (at 18th Street).

History

The parish was established by the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco The Archdiocese of San Francisco (Latin language, Latin: ''Archdiœcesis Sancti Francisci''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Arquidiócesis de San Francisco'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the nort ...

in 1900 and describes itself as "''an inclusive Catholic community'' – embracing all people of good faith – Catholics as well as those people interested in learning about the Catholic experience – regardless of their background, gender, race, social status or sexual orientation." The current pastoral team head is Fr. Matt Link, C.PP.S. In ''The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk'',

Randy Shilts Randy Shilts (August 8, 1951February 17, 1994) was an American journalist and author. After studying journalism at the University of Oregon, Shilts began working as a reporter for both ''The Advocate'' and the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', as well ...

mentions the church several times. The church was later vandalized by anti-

Proposition 8 Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage. It passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned by the ...

protesters, although many churchgoers were opposed to the ballot initiative. For many years, Most Holy Redemer was the home of Father William Young, one of the select priests in the Bay Area qualified to celebrate the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or ''usus antiquior'' (), Vetus Ordo or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in ...

. Father Young celebrated this weekdays at Most Holy Redeemer, and each Sunday at St. Vincent's Holy Rosary Chapel in Marinwood.

Ministry to LGBT people and AIDS outreach

In the 1980s, the neighborhood was deteriorating and the parish with it. Property values fell and a largely gay population moved in. Seeing the change in the neighborhood, Archbishop John R. Quinn appointed Fr. Tony McGuire as pastor of the church in 1983. McGuire brought together the largely older women who made up most of the remaining congregation and the few gay men who joined the parish. Together they began an outreach to the new gay population of the neighborhood. As the AIDS epidemic hit the gay community, the parish began providing services to those in need. The parish paired parishioners with people suffering from AIDS in the neighborhood to give them rides to the doctors, help around the house, or meet other needs. The older women in the parish were instrumental in this ministry. It became a place "that helped save souls and helped save lives." In 1986, a scroll was begun with the names of parishioners who had died of AIDS. Framed photos of some of them line the church. Quinn regularly visited this parish, especially during the annual 40 Hours Vigil held throughout the 1980s in support of those who were

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

-positive and their caregivers. , the AIDS support group is active again, though it is smaller than it was in the 1980s. The current "parish offers a spiritual home to all: senior citizens and youth; single people and families; those who are straight, gay, lesbian, and transgender; the healthy and the sick, particularly persons with HIV/AIDS."

References

External links

Most Holy Redeemer Church, San Francisco

History

Ministry to LGBT people and AIDS outreach

References

External links

Further reading