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USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. (right) gave a blessing at the inauguration of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Jan. 8. Seated from left are: William Newsom ’55, Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom JD’94, and Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Photo: Thomas John Gibbons
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Fr. Privett Blesses Newsom Administration
Praying for San Francisco’s new mayor to be blessed with wisdom, humility, courage, and compassion, USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. gave the invocation at the inauguration of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Jan. 8.
Fr. Privett has forged ties with the mayor since presiding over Newsom’s wedding two years ago in St. Ignatius Church to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a 1994 graduate of the USF School of Law. Newsom’s father, William Newsom, a 1955 graduate of USF and a retired judge, also serves on the board of overseers of USF’s McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good.
Also on inauguration day, Fr. Privett offered the following reflection during an interfaith prayer service with the new mayor in Grace Cathedral:
In collecting my thoughts for this morning’s interfaith celebration, I remembered the story of a poor woman in rural Mexico, the mother of eight children. When she was asked which of her many children she loved the most, hers was not a mother’s standard answer, “I love them all the same.” Rather she bent down and scooped up into her arms a young and obviously disabled child. “This one,” she said, “because he needs me the most.”
I pray with you this morning that under Gavin Newsom’s leadership as mayor, this new and promising chapter in the history of San Francisco will tell the story of a city that measures its success by God’s standard: by how well it cares for the weakest and most vulnerable among us. I pray that Gavin may challenge, inspire, and lead us all to put aside narrow self-interest and pursue the common good of all the citizens of this great city, especially of those who “need us the most.”
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