The Paulist Fathers announce with great sadness that our brother, Father Thomas F. Foley, has entered eternal life.
Father Foley died on Jan. 22 at the Mercy Retirement & Care Center in Oakland, Calif. He was 77.
Father Foley was a member of the Paulist community for 53 years and a priest for 47 years, serving as a campus minister and parish priest.
Thomas Francis Foley was born on July 28, 1947, in New York City, a son of Daniel and Matilda Fragia Foley. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minn. He entered the Paulist novitiate on Sept. 16, 1971.
Father Foley made his first promises on Aug. 26, 1972, and his final promises on June 2, 1976. During his years in the seminary, he studied at Washington Theological Coalition (later renamed Washington Theological Union). He was ordained a priest on May 14, 1977.
In his first priestly assignment, he was a campus minister at St. John XXIII University Parish in Knoxville through August 1979.
Father Foley then moved to Boston, where he served as a campus minister for students at Tufts University until May 1984. In the latter half of 1984, he studied Spanish in Colombia. From 1985 to 1987, he was an associate pastor at St. Peter’s Church in Toronto. He was based at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in West Palm Beach, Fla., from 1988 to 1990 and at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Boca Raton, Fla., in 1990 and 1991. He then served at Paulist Press from 1992 to 1996.
Father Foley was an associate pastor at St. Austin Church in Austin, Texas, from 1998 to 2002, and an associate pastor at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco from 2002 to 2009. He then continued to live at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in senior ministry.
Father Foley, who co-wrote the book The Key Is in The Darkness: Unlocking The Door to a Spiritual Life with Mark Lewis, moved in 2021 to the Mercy Retirement & Care Center in Oakland.
A funeral Mass for Father Foley was celebrated on Feb. 6 at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral. The principal celebrant was Father René Constanza, president of the Paulist Fathers. Father Tom Hall, CSP, another member of the Paulist ordination class of 1977, delivered the homily. Father Foley was buried in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, Calif.