Bishop Oscar Cantu announced that Fr. Bart Hutcherson, OP has been appointed Pastor of Catholic Community at Stanford. Fr. Xavier has been transferred to Newman Hall - Holy Spirit Parish at UC Berkeley. They will each begin their respective new positions on July 1.
Fr. Bartholomew Hutcherson, OP was ordained a priest of the Western Dominican Province in 1997. For the last 6 years, Fr. Bart has been assigned to the Province’s Itinerant Preaching Team, traveling to offer parish missions, retreats, and pilgrimages, while also serving as an adjunct lecturer in homiletics at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. But Fr. Bart’s first love in ministry has always been serving the young church, having entered the Dominicans after working for several years as a lay youth minister. Within the Order, he continued to serve the young church in university ministry, having ministered at the Universities
of Washington and Utah, UNLV, and 10 years as Pastor of the Newman Center at the University of Arizona.
Fr. Bart loves Scripture, history, and travel, and combines those loves in an ongoing life of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is also his primary metaphor for the Christian life; it informs his preaching, teaching, and the exercise of pastoral ministry, wherein he sees himself as a “companion on the journey.”
Fr. Bart is an avid photography hobbyist whose work can be seen in For the Beauty of the Earth: Experiencing the Glory of God in the Wonders of the 49th State, a book of photos and reflections from an extended period of ministry in Alaska during the Covid shutdown.
On a personal note, Fr. Bart’s last job in youth ministry was at St. Bartholomew’s Parish in San Mateo (from which he also took his religious name). His return to Campus Ministry and move to Menlo Park feels like a “coming home.”
There will be an opportunity to meet Fr. Bart after all Masses on Sunday, May 12.
