Fr. John Hurley, C.S.P.

Paulist Father John Hurley is a native New Yorker, raised in Manhattan, the Bronx and Huntington, Long Island.  He entered the Paulists in 1970 and was ordained in 1977 by Servant of God, Terence Cardinal Cooke.  He graduated with a BA in Religious Education from the Catholic University of America, a Master of Divinity degree from the Washington Theological Union and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.  

During his first assignment he founded the Paulist Center for Catholic Evangelization in Portland, Oregon in 1979.  His other community assignments include pastor of historic Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, Administrator of St. Austin’s Church in Austin, Texas, Executive Director of Financial Development, Director of Paulist Reconciliation Ministries, Coordinator of Strategic Planning and over twenty years of service on the Paulist General Council.  

He has also taken the Paulist charism to serve the Church across the United States and beyond. He is the former Executive Director for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Evangelization, where he served for almost nine years, the National Pastoral Life Center in New York City and from 2010-2014, the newly established Department of Evangelization for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. While in Baltimore, he co-chaired the first three Mid-Atlantic Congresses for Catholic Leaders. He also served as a consultant to the US Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis from 2008-2014.

In May 2014, Fr. Hurley launched New Evangelization Strategies. This national Paulist ministry, based at Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, assists Pastoral Leaders, Councils and Staffs and Catholic ministries in creating a new paradigm for the sake of the mission entrusted to the Church as Jesus’ disciples.   Other outreaches include serving as an instructor in the Academy of Church Leadership at Santa Clara University from 2014-2017, Vicar for Evangelization in the Diocese of San Jose from January 2017 through June 2019, and coordinating two San Diego Diocesan Synods in 2016 (Embracing the Joy of Love) and 2019 (Young Adult Synod). He continues to serve as a consultant to Sadlier Publishing and is a member of the Leadership Roundtable’s Catholic Leadership 360 team.  And, he is a certified Spiritual Director. 

Fr. Hurley speaks on evangelization and discipleship before parish, diocesan and national church leadership through keynote addresses, workshops, parish missions and retreats in dioceses all across the United States.  During the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Fr. Hurley was commissioned by Pope Francis to be a Papal Missionary of Mercy which was renewed after the Jubilee Year.