Funeral Mass will be celebrated April 17, 9:30 a.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles for Jesuit Father John D. McAnulty, 88, who died April 4. A retired member of the Society of Jesus, Father McAnulty was founding director of the Cardinal Timothy Manning House of Prayer for Priests where he ministered for nearly three decades.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, he moved with his family to Southern California and attended St. Gregory and St. Clement grammar schools. After graduating from Loyola High, he studied at the University of California at Los Angeles and spent three years as a U.S. Army infantryman during World War II.

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1946, where, during the next seven years, he completed the regular Jesuit ascetical, classical and philosophical studies and also received his MA in Economics from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington in 1953. He was ordained in 1957 by Cardinal James Francis McIntyre.

Father McAnulty served the majority of his almost 52 years of priesthood within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. From mid-1966 to early '68, he taught at Loyola University and was the Jesuit spiritual director followed by nearly three years as Master of Novices at Santa Barbara. He gave monthly days of recollections for priests, and, after completing a term as Provincial for Formation, he expressed the desire to start an open house for priests.

With wholehearted support from Cardinal Timothy Manning, who suggested Father McAnulty approach the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart about locating the house of prayer on the eight-acre grounds of the motherhouse and retreat center in Los Feliz, the Jesuit embarked on his priests' apostolate. He received the sisters' consent to house the priests' prayer facility at a guest house on their property, and subsequently took a sabbatical year for preparation, studying scripture, discernment of spirits and prayer at the Gregorian University in Rome.

He was the director for the House of Prayer for Priests from its opening day, Oct. 25, 1976, to June 30, 2005. During his tenure as director, so many priests came for spiritual direction and retreats that larger accommodations proved necessary. New buildings, including guest rooms for 22 priests and special rooms for individual spiritual direction and confession, were formally dedicated in February 1995 and named The Cardinal Timothy Manning House of Prayer for Priests.

Father McAnulty continued to serve at the new House of Prayer until failing health required him to enter retirement three years ago. "The deepening of the spiritual lives of the priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the result of the prayer and the constant spiritual work of Father John McAnulty," said Cardinal Roger Mahony in an April 6 statement on the death and legacy of Father McAnulty.