On a night that celebrates the formation of priests, the biggest star was a laywoman.
Marge Graf, longtime general counsel for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was honored at the St. John’s Seminary Gala dinner Sept. 19. Graf received the “Evangelii Gaudium”(“The Joy of the Gospel”) Award for her “ministry of assistance” to clergy, archdiocesan staff, and victims of abuse.
“This award is inspired by Pope Francis’ first apostolic exhortation, in which he described a Church which goes forth as a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice,” said Heather Banis, head of the archdiocese’s Victims Assistance Ministry, in remarks presenting the award.
“Marge embodies this spirit with ferocity and generosity.”
More than 800 guests attended the Saturday night dinner, which benefits men in formation at the Camarillo-based seminary. Held outdoors in the plaza of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the gala drew the second-most attendees in the event’s 18-year history, and included seminarians from the various U.S. dioceses who study at St. John’s: Fresno, Orange, Monterey, and El Paso, Texas.
Four distinguished alumni were honored, along with Graf, including Bishop Albert Bahhuth, Msgr. Frank Hicks, and Father Vaughn Winters of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; and Father Steve Sallot of the Diocese of Orange.
Accepting the award for Bishop Bahhuth, who could not be in attendance, was Father Andrew Hedstrom (Class of 2021), who served with Bahhuth briefly at Holy Family Church in South Pasadena until he was named a bishop in the summer of 2023.
Hedstrom remembered the night that Bahhuth told him with “absolute poker-faced composure” that Francis would be appointing him a bishop the next day. He praised Bahhuth for his “seamless blend of pastoral gravity and disarming humor.”
Hicks, who at 85 continues to serve as pastor of St. Basil Church in Koreatown, chaplain for the LAPD, and director of the Cardinal McIntyre Fund for Charity, long ago gave up a successful career in law enforcement to discern the priesthood.
“I don’t think there’s anything remarkable about my vocation to the priesthood and my days as a priest in LA. They have all been joyful. I have never looked back,” said Hicks, who entered St. John’s in 1995 at the age of 54 and was ordained five years later.
Winters, who was ordained in 1993, arrived at St. John’s in the late 1980s after a years-long religious struggle between his mother’s Catholic faith and his father’s Mormonism.
“Ever since my teenage years I wanted to be a priest because for me, the most important thing in life is serving God,” said Winters, who was introduced as an exemplary pastor with a contagious sense of humor. As if to prove the point, guests from St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church in Santa Clarita, where Winters has been pastor since 2021, gave the loudest cheer of the night.
In his remarks, Sallot said his award was a recognition of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Diocese of Orange, which he remembered as “an exciting time” at St. John's.
“Orange was jettisoned from the ‘mothership,’ the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and in Orange we were beginning things,” said Sallot. “Everything was looking up.”
Since his ordination in 1980, Father Sallot served in various parishes, at Mater Dei High School as director, and as vicar general under Bishop Kevin Vann. He retired from active ministry last year, although according to friend Father Bill Barman, “you would not think that, looking at his actual calendar.”
When it was time for Graf to accept her award, the New York native recalled the moment Cardinal Roger Mahony asked her to serve as general counsel in 2003, a post she “had never considered, and certainly would not have applied for.”
“That request led to an unexpected journey of faith and professional work with Cardinal [Mahony], Archbishop Gomez, and many of you, and others not here,” said Graf.
Graf recognized the role of St. John’s in serving not just diocesan vocations, but men and women religious and laypeople through its educational programs. She also presented Archbishop José H. Gomez with a landscape painting by her granddaughter of the seminary’s scenic Doheny gardens and library.
“It has been an honor to be a senior member of the team of lawyers, religious, and clergy,” said Graf. “And to know that many of our efforts have provided important positive and strategic outcomes for you, our archdiocese, and the individuals we serve.”
