On October 7, the mayor of Los Angeles, fellow Carmelites, and Catholic school educators and supporters honored Father Tracy O'Sullivan, pastor of St. Raphael Parish in South Los Angeles, for his lifelong dedication and service to inner-city parochial schools.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that he was happy to be at the Jonathan Beach Club in Santa Monica to praise the 73-year-old Carmelite priest, even though he would be booed for being late to a Dodger playoff game. The mayor compared St. Raphael, where 97 percent of the students go on to not only finish high school but then to college, with urban L.A. public schools who have a dropout rate hovering around 65 percent.

"When you look at what Father Tracy and all of you who have gotten behind St. Raphael have been able to do, it's nothing short of amazing," Mayor Villaraigosa said. "It's a real blessing and speaks of the social justice of our faith. When you look at the prestigious universities these kids are going to, it's amazing.

"So I congratulate you," he declared. "Catholic schools in the inner city are islands of success in areas of deep poverty, extreme violence. So when you see the success of these kids, it's a beautiful thing. What you're doing is you're changing lives."

Prior Provincial Father John Welch, who was in the seminary with St. Raphael's pastor, said his friend had long been one of the Carmelites' heroes, going back to his work as a Chicago community organizer, elementary school principal and pastor of an urban African American parish.

"I remember that he started to build up steam about the justice issues early and became a voice for the voiceless," recalled Father Welch. "That passion within him led him to assignments in Chicago and here in Los Angeles dedicated to people and justice. And I think one of the reasons for the energy, the optimism and his hope that he continues to bring to this world is his Carmelite heritage."

Kathy Anderson, executive director of the Catholic Education Foundation, which provides tuition assistance to local low income families, said when she met Father O'Sullivan a couple of years ago she asked him why St. Raphael School was doing so well compared with some other struggling Catholic schools in the inner city.

"'You know, Kathy, every day I go over to the school,'" she recalled him saying. "'I walk the schoolyard. I go into the classrooms and talk to the kids. It's part of my life. And the school is an integral part of the parish.'"

She praised the veteran cleric for helping to organize a consortium of 81 pastors whose inner-city parishes had parochial schools and for testifying to the priests about how crucial these schools actually were to the church's sacred mission of evangelization.

"So that's why this evening is about Father Tracy," Anderson said. "We honor him for what he has done for Catholic schools and also his community. This man walks the talk more than anybody I've ever seen in my life."

When Father O'Sullivan finally spoke at the end of the evening program, he said helping to build up St. Raphael School, mostly by hiring good principals and teachers, was one of the best things he did after coming to Los Angeles in 1994. Then he talked about how his inner-city ministry really started when three African American mothers came to him as a young community organizer working on the south side of Chicago. In no uncertain terms, they let him know if he wanted to bring about real systemic change to their community, he should begin with the parish school.

"So those mothers started me on a journey, and I've kept it up," he explained. "I learned what urban education was about, and I learned that all you need to do is do the right thing and things happen. Over the years, I was taught a tremendous set of lessons and values and hope.

"I've had the privilege and the beauty to walk with this community of the inner city for all these years," Father O'Sullivan said. "And I've been blessed beyond description."