Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Shanahan grad to be ordained as a priest
Rev. Brian Connolly, a 1994 Bishop Shanahan graduate, will be ordained to priesthood on Saturday
PHILADELPHIA >> The Rev. Brian Connolly, a Downingtown native and Bishop Shanahan graduate, will be ordained to the priesthood Saturday by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput.
Chaput will ordain Connolly, of Lafayette Hill, and Matthew Brody, of Philadelphia, to the Priesthood for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The Rite of Ordination will take place during Mass following the Liturgy of the Word at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
Each of the newly ordained priests will be assigned to a parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia where they will serve as parochial vicars. A parochial vicar is a priest appointed by the archbishop to assist the pastor of a parish with his pastoral and administrative duties.
Father Connolly will celebrate his First Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving at 3 p.m. Sunday at Saint Philip Neri Parish Church in Lafayette Hill, Montgomery County. Connolly has been serving as a transitional deacon at Saint Patrick’s Parish in Malvern for the past year.
The homilist will be Rev. Edward B. Connolly. Concelebrants include Rev. Monsignor Charles Vance, the Rev. Christopher Redcay, and the Rev. Joseph L. Maloney.
Connolly, 41, attended Saint Joseph Parish Elementary School in Downingtown and graduated from Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown in 1994. He attended West Chester University from 19941999 in West Chester, where he earned a Bachelor of Science. He received his Master of Divinity at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood.