It’s obvious that the people of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, are delighted to have former Columbus Bishop Robert Brennan, “one of their own,” as their new shepherd, said a member of the Columbus contingent attending Bishop Brennan’s installation ceremony in his new home.
“You could see the happiness of the people there,” said Loren Brown, president and chief executive officer of The Catholic Foundation. “I heard many comments along the lines of, ‘He’s one of us. He sounds like someone who understands the diocese and will fit right in.’”
Bishop Brennan had no previous affiliation with the Brooklyn diocese, which covers the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. But he was born in another New York borough, the Bronx, part of the Archdiocese of New York, which borders the Brooklyn diocese on the north, and he grew up and was a priest and auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, which covers Long Island and borders the Brooklyn diocese on the east.
His only significant time outside the New York City metropolitan area occurred when he was bishop of Columbus from March 29, 2019 until Pope Francis appointed him to succeed retiring Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio in Brooklyn, where he was installed in his new position on Tuesday Nov. 30 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph and St. Teresa of Avila.
“The installation was one of the most beautiful liturgical celebrations one could ever experience,” Brown said. “Something that really struck me was that Bishop Brennan on several occasions talked about how happy he was in Columbus and how hard it was to leave. He made it clear that three of the happiest years of his life were spent as spiritual leader of the Columbus diocese.
“I also was impressed by the number of priests, sisters and others from the diocese who came to Brooklyn to see the installation. It shows the high regard in which he was held by those who worked with him.”
At the ceremony were 14 Columbus diocesan priests, plus representatives of several orders of sisters and many laypersons from the diocese. The priests included Msgr. Joseph Hendricks and Fathers Stash Dailey, Daniel Dury, Craig Eilerman, William Hahn, Michael Hartge, Timothy Hayes, Robert Kitsmiller, Michael Lumpe, Robert Penhallurick, David Schalk, Adam Streitenberger, David Sizemore and Jonathan Wilson. The group also included Father Steven Beseau, rector/president of the Pontifical College Josephinum.
“Bishop Brennan’s installation was a wonderful experience of the Universal Church because so many ethnic communities were involved,” said Msgr. Hendricks, pastor of Dublin St. Brigid of Kildare Church. “It was a great experience of how the Catholic Church covers the world and of the vitality of the Church in Brooklyn.
“What I saw made it obvious that Bishop Brennan has embraced his new assignment and is entering it with the enthusiasm he displayed from the beginning in Columbus.”
Four days after his installation, he was the celebrant for a World Youth Day Mass at the co-cathedral. The following day, Sunday, Dec. 5, he celebrated Mass at the chapel of his alma mater, St. John’s University in Queens, and again referred to his time in central Ohio, saying Ohio State University “became a big part of my life there in Columbus.”
The day of the installation “was a day filled with joy,” said Deacon Thomas Berg Jr., Columbus diocesan chancellor. “There was such a great celebratory mood. One of the most enjoyable things was hearing the band from Bishop Brennan’s high school (St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip, New York) playing in front of the cathedral after the installation.
“It was nice to be able to sit with my fellow deacons from Brooklyn and wish them well, and I was pleased to see several New York City television stations at the installation and watch some of their coverage of it on news programs afterward.”
“You could feel the happiness among everyone, lay and religious, who were present,” said Sister John Paul Maher, OP, principal of Worthington St. Michael School. “I felt a strong sense that Bishop Brennan understands the people of his new diocese already, but he made his love for the Diocese of Columbus very clear, especially when he said he had been ready to spend the rest of his life here.
“He was 100 percent all in for the people of this (Columbus) diocese, and I’m sure it will be the same in Brooklyn. As he said in his homily, he accepted the Lord’s call to return to the shore and will continue to go wherever God sends him. In doing that, he’s living the motto he adopted as a bishop: ‘Thy Will Be Done.’”
Sister John Paul said the congregation for the ceremony included Sister Eileen Fitzsimmons, O.Carm, of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, who served for many years at Mother Angeline McCrory Manor in Columbus and now lives in the New York area.
