By Lois Rogers | Correspondent
Faithful from around the Trenton Diocese who had known Father Thomas Brennan and held him in high regard in his nearly 50 years as a devoted priest came to bid him farewell at St. Pius X Church, Forked River, May 2, the last of many parishes where he served.
Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., celebrated Father Brennan’s Mass of Christian Burial before a congregation of several hundred including 23 priests who concelebrated, as well as members of his family and friends.
During his homily, Divine Word Father Martin Padovani, who assisted in St. Barnabas Parish, Bayville, during the 15 years Father Brennan was pastor there, spoke warmly of the “gentle, humble man” a shy man, who used his spiritual gifts over the decades to engage and empower parishioners.
“He was modest, meek and soft spoken,” said Father Padovani. “But he was not a pushover. He was open and honest” and highly regarded for the sense of “hospitality – a gift of God – that permeated his life.”
With a true sense of loyalty, faith and commitment, and the gift of Irish humor, Father Brennan was a team builder with a real ability to bring people together, Father Padovani said.
All those gifts came into play when Father Brennan retired as a pastor in 2001 from Sacred Heart Parish, Bay Head, and devoted his time, energy and spirituality to serving as a weekend assistant in St. Pius X Parish, where, Father Padovani said, he found “more loyal friends.”
Just a month shy of his 85th birthday, when he died April 29, after a short illness, Father Brennan was born in Kinsale, a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland to Edmund and Margaret Brennan. He grew up in a close family that included two brothers and two sisters.
He attended St. Finbarr College, Farran Ferris, Cork, and St. Patrick Seminary, Carlow, Ireland.
Ordained to the priesthood by the late Bishop Peter Birch in Carlow Cathedral, June 11, 1966, he traveled to the United States shortly thereafter and was incardinated as a priest of the Diocese of Trenton.
Father Brennan’s first assignment was in St. John Vianney Parish, Colonia, where he served from 1966 to 1972 as parochial vicar. He was then named parochial vicar in Corpus Christi Parish, Willingboro. In 1974, he was appointed parochial vicar in St. Augustine Parish, Franklin Park.
On Oct. 19, 1979, Father Brennan was named pastor of St. Barnabas Parish, Bayville, and continued there as pastor for 15 years. The year after arriving in St. Barnabas Parish, he was appointed pro-synodal judge of the Diocesan Tribunal and was reappointed to an indeterminate term in 1983.
He was also appointed to serve a term on the interdiocesan tribunal as a judge and defender of the bond in 1983. In addition to his work in the tribunal, Father Brennan was a member of the Diocesan Education Finance Council.
In 1994, he was assigned as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, Bay Head and retired as pastor on June 30, 2001.
He retired to Forked River where he began serving the parish of St. Pius the X, which, as an area newspaper noted, he continued to do until celebrating his last morning Mass on April 5. In his homily, Father Padovani noted that Father Brennan, would have celebrated 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on June 11.
Internment was to be at St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Enniscrone Ireland, where his parents and other family members are buried.
After the Mass, many of those attending shared their reflections of Father Brennan during the repast held in the parish center following the Mass. Rosemary Crowe first encountered him at St. John Vianney Parish, Colonia, and later served with at St. Barnabas with him as a religious education teacher and in the parish gift store, echoed Father Padovani, recalling his ability to bring groups of people together.
“He was the most wonderful priest,” she said. “You could sit and talk to him about anything during the whole 15 years he was at St. Barnabas and he would listen.”
Anthony Mauro was an altar server for “five or six” years when Father Brennan was pastor of St. Barnabas. He recalled a very “reverent experience” under Father Brennan’s tutelage. There were fun times, he said, remembering Father Brennan’s sense of humor, “but he made sure” everyone did a proper job.
Mauro’s wife, Jennifer, spoke of how the convivial priest came to lunch every Monday at her aunt’s house. “There was always a good story and an Irish song,” said Jennifer Mauro, who remembered Father Brennan as a wonderfully polite man and a “good spiritual leader who would do anything for you.”
Eileen Fitzsimons, a St. Pius X parishioner, spoke of the joy of knowing Father Brennan in her seven years there. “He didn’t just come on weekends. I’ve come to the 8 a.m. Mass during the week and he was here,” said Fitzsimons, who especially appreciated having him hear her Confessions.
“He gave great penance,” she said. “He would often say, ‘do a kindness for someone as your penance.’ I loved that. It made another person feel good. It made you feel good.”