Father Alfredo Tamayo retired from actively priestly ministry on Dec. 31 after 43 years of wide-ranging service. While preparing to conclude his most recent assignment as pastor of Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Lake Almanor, Father “Tam” reminisced with Catholic Herald magazine about places, particulars, and most important, purpose.
“I knew wherever I would be, that’s where God would be,” Father Tamayo says, contented and sure that his ministry, which began in the Philippines and continued in the United States, was “a call from God.” He summarizes that “to make God’s presence felt” stirred his sense of spiritual mission while also developing his own “sense of service.”
Father Tamayo candidly speaks of challenges through the years, but also acknowledges how “it helped me in my own spiritual formation.”
“It made me reflect on my commitment to help people,” he says, clarifying that “in sharing the basics of faith, we look at our relationships with people and see how each is rooted in our deeper relationship with God.”
Born in 1952 in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, Philippines, Father Tamayo was baptized and grew up in St. Rita’s Church, attending local schools. He speaks fondly of the Irish Columban priests who operated the parish, encouraged him, and bid him well as he left for Cebu City to enter the Seminary of San Carlos. There Vincentians served as his formators before he proceeded on to his theology studies at St. Francis Xavier Remase in Davao City, managed by the French-Canadian Pretres de Missions Etrangeres, or Fathers of the Foreign Mission Society.
Following his theology studies, he completed a spiritual formation pastoral year with the Society of Jesus in Malaybalay. Yet the need existed for diocesan priests, and Father Tamayo answered this call returning to St. Rita’s for his ordination on April 23, 1977 in the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.
Father Tamayo served four parishes over 16 years in the Philippines before accepting the call to active military service as a captain and Catholic chaplain in the Philippine army. He enjoyed it and believed the military was God’s ultimate call, until God called again.
In November 1996, Father Tamayo’s archbishop sent him on a new journey in response to then-Bishop William K. Weigand’s request for priests to serve the growing Diocese of Sacramento. After a brief orientation period at All Hallows Parish in Sacramento, Father Tamayo commenced the second half of his priestly ministry.
“I have found in every parish there would be similar activities, but also particulars to the parish,” he says, highlighting how the needs of the people and demographics determined his pastoral focus.
While serving as parochial vicar of St. John the Baptist Parish in Folsom from January 1997 to August 2001, he recalls how his ministry included faith formation and hospital work. A brief time as parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish in Sacramento, from August 2001 to June 2002, facilitated the pastor’s sabbatical and readied Father Tamayo for his next role. As parochial administrator at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Burney from June 2002 to May 2005, he helped integrate cultures and enhance communications while also ministering to two mission parishes. In March 2003, Father Tamayo was incardinated in the diocese and became pastor of the Burney parish.
Good Shepherd Parish in Elk Grove offered the next challenge for Father Tamayo from May 2005 to June 2011. As pastor, he navigated the demands of building a permanent church for one of the diocese’s fastest growing and most diverse parishes, while also overseeing a thriving school for the Elk Grove parishes, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Father Tamayo was appointed pastor of St. Basil Parish and school in Vallejo in July 2011, where he served for five years before becoming pastor of Our Lady of the Snows.
In retirement, Father Tamayo will reside at St. Mel Parish in Fair Oaks and looks forward to assisting the needs of brother priests as needed. He hopes to visit the Philippines and travel (when permitted), admitting with reserved exuberance, “I’m wide open to whatever comes.”
Catholic Herald Issue