Controversial (San Francisco) school chaplain Illo ousted at Star of the Sea

C. W. Nevius
San Francisco Chronicle
May 18, 2015

The announcement that priest Joseph Illo would be removed as chaplain of Star of the Sea School took a lot of people by surprise, but was Illo one of them?

The controversial pastor of the Star of the Sea parish sent out an odd letter to parents and faculty last week that said, “indications thus far are that I will remain administrator of Star of the Sea Parish for the foreseeable future.” However, nothing is said about the school.

We now know that Bishop Salvatore Cordileone has replaced Illo with Father Vito Perrone, who had been at Mater Dolorosa Church in South San Francisco. Perrone has quickly set out to lower the volume of the discussion about gender roles and morality pamphlets that’s been raging around the school for the past few months and reassure school parents.

“Father Vito showed up and the first thing he did was schedule 40-minute appointments with every parent,” said Christy Brooks, who has a sixth and a fourth grader at the school. “He’s a wonderful human being and a wonderful spiritual teacher.”

So all is well? Not so fast. Illo continues to be a polarizing figure and is still attempting to walk back some of his more incendiary comments. In an interview with the Catholic World Report he said his decision not to allow girls to be altar servers was, “a poke in the eye of liberal San Francisco.” He said changes at the Star of the Sea were part of a “purge.”

And, in preparing to come to San Francisco he wrote in a February 2014 blog post that he was about to enter the “ beautiful but savagely distorted cultural maelstrom that is the ‘Baghdad by the Bay.’”

“Before he ever arrived he was blogging about purging the parish,” said Brooks. “It was just name-calling in the simplest form. He insulted and accused us and he did not even know us.”

Illo appeared to get the message. His letter last week talks about how “I understand how important that it is that we develop a better working relationship moving forward.”

And, he added in respect to the all-male altar server controversy that, “I deeply regret the upset this issue has called us all.”

He may have hoped that would quell the controversy, but apparently Cordileone felt he’d rather make a change — at least for now. At first there was an announcement that Illo would stay as chaplain, then a reversal. Meanwhile, Brooks says the needs of the parents are simple and basic.

“Our hope is for a permanent pastor at Star of the Sea who honors and respects our community and 100-year Catholic education,” she said. “To that end, Fr. Vito Perrone has really gotten to know all the families.”

That all sounds positive, but at this point Brooks says parents are still deeply suspicious. Perrone is only committed to the school for a year, and she says parents fear that the plan is to let things cool down and then bring Illo back to run the school.

“In Father Illo’s mind, I think he truly believes that he will get the school back,” Brooks said. “That’s why the best long term solution would be to remove Fr. Illo from the parish completely.”