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Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
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PRIEST FOR THE AGES

By Art Brew

Monsignor John Sweeny was born on April 3, 1924 in San Francisco, the oldest of three sons of John and Norma Rose Sweeny. His father was a plasterer and his mother a school teacher. They lived in the Polk Gulch area just east of Van Ness Avenue in St. Brigid's parish. During the Depression, they moved to the Sierra foothills for several years when work was scarce in the city. Both John and his brother, the late Father Louis Sweeny, credited their faith to their parents' devotion to the rosary, family and individual prayer. Richard, the youngest brother, taught school in San Mateo and San Francisco for 36 years. He is now retired and lives in Marin County.

Both Monsignor Sweeny and his brother Louis attended St. Joseph's in Mountain View and college, including post graduate studies at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park. The two brothers were ordained on the same day, December 18, 1948, at St. Mary's cathedral in San Francisco. Monsignor Sweeny served at a number of parishes in San Francisco and in Santa Clara County. In 1965, Sweeny organized and established Opportunities Industrialization Center West, a job training and placement program for the unemployed and underemployed in East Palo Alto. In June, 1969, he was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Peace parish in Santa Clara where he has served to this day.

His devotion to the Blessed Mother saw its fruition in the creation and placing of a large statue outside the church. The statue that was meant to be a beginning of a monumental shrine honoring the Blessed Mother was commissioned by Monsignor Sweeny in September of 1976. There was little money available for such a venture at the and whenever he was asked how much money he would need he replied, "All I need are rosaries." Rosaries were said on many continents, and soon generous donations flowed in. In 1983, the 32-foot statue of Our Lady, fashioned by Charles Parks of Delaware, was dedicated and the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace was established. Similar statutes are now being erected in Florida, Ohio, and Iowa. The statue near the front entrance to the church towers over two of the busiest intersections in the Silicon Valley and is seen by thousands of commuters every day, as well as the hundreds of faithful who kneel in adoration before it. Monsignor Sweeny is often seen kneeling in prayer before this statue, sometimes even late at night. It is seldom that a group of parishioners are not there to join him.

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