On Sunday, February 25, 2024, Father Alphonse Van Guilder, OFM Conv celebrated the 60th anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood with a Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Pismo Beach, CA, where he is currently assigned as Guardian and Associate Pastor. Father Alphonse was ordained on February 22, 1964, at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN. Father Alphonse was born and raised in Chicago, IL. He was originally a member of St. Bonaventure Province and became a founding member of St. Joseph of Cupertino Province. During his years of priesthood, Father Alphonse served the Order and the Church primarily as a parish priest, educator, and chaplain. While a member of St. Bonaventure Province, he taught at the province’s minor seminary in Crystal Lake, IL. Two of his former students became bishops, one a diocesan, and the other a Conventual Franciscan, Bishop William Callahan, recently retired of the Diocese of La Crosse, WI. In our own province, Father Alphonse served as pastor of Our Lady of the Angels Parish, Riverside, CA and as Rector of the Cathedral of St. Thomas Aquinas in Reno, NV. He also taught at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, CA. He additionally served as prison chaplain at the California Mens’ Colony, San Luis Obispo, CA. In Pismo Beach, he assists at our parish of St. Paul’s as well as at nearby St. Patrick’s in Arroyo Grande, CA.
