Fr. Philip Brady will turn 103 this year and during his lifetime, he’s developed a lot of steady habits. He says Mass every day, he prays his breviary, and he still sends his check to the Annual Catholic Appeal.
Father, who lives in a senior community outside Buffalo, served for many years in the Diocese of Bridgeport until retiring in 1995 as pastor from St. Margaret Mary Church in Shelton after 27 years. Since that time, he has been sending his annual check of $1100 to help the parish reach its goal in the appeal.
Throughout his priesthood he contributed and continues to do so because of his love for St. Margaret Mary.
“I have a great feeling for the parish,” he said in a phone interview. “And I want to help them get by. I was very friendly with everybody, and the parishioners continue to call me.”
When he first arrived as pastor in 1968, the parish was facing serious financial challenges.
“It was a really difficult situation,” he recalls. “It took me quite a long time to straighten things out, but when I retired in 1995, they had a new church and rectory. All the bills were paid, and there was $100,000 in the bank. We had a lot of food festivals, sing-alongs, Bingo and carnivals.”
One person who is especially appreciative to Father Brady for his participation in the appeal is Pamela S. Rittman, Director of the Annual Catholic Appeal. Twelve years ago, when he called to make his donation, she discovered he was from the town in upstate New York where she grew up.
“We immediately hit it off as friends and talked about local restaurants and the cold Western New York weather,” Rittman said. “He was there when I needed him and presided over the funeral of a family member and blessed our home in upstate New York.
Rittman says that when she visits her family in New York, she tries to stop in to see him and see him and share the news of the diocese.
Rittman said the “Arise” theme along with the hopefulness of this year’s ACA campaign is something Fr. Brady can relate to in his long and productive life. Filled with faith and with a love for people, he puts his trust in the Holy Spirit and keeps on going. And he understands the importance of making goal!
“We always met our goal for the appeal when I was pastor,” Father says. “I still participate in it because it is a good thing for the diocese, and I want to help St. Margaret Mary. Those 27 years I was there were very happy years. I love the people and I miss them all.”
Father, who was ordained on December 18 has been a priest for 77 years and will turn 103 on September 16.
He continues to celebrate daily Mass at Orchard Glen Residence in Orchard Park, NY. Because of COVID restrictions, which he said “are kind of a drag,” he has to celebrate Mass alone in his room instead of in the Father Brady Chapel, which the community built for him. Before COVID, Sunday Mass was held in the common room for the 35 Catholics who are residents.
Looking back on his life, he said, “I’ve been very happy in my 77 years as a priest. I never considered being anything else.”
The middle child of five, with two older brothers and two younger sisters, Fr. Brady entered St. Mark’s Elementary School in Buffalo in 1924.
“I can still remember Father Shea coming into our third-grade classroom,” he said. “He asked, ‘How many boys want to become a priest?’ I raised my hand immediately and from then on, that was my vocation. No other profession attracted me. I was determined to become a priest.”
Of course, Father had help from his mother, Dorothy, whose prayers and encouragement led him forward in the pursuit of his calling. As a young woman at St. Cecilia Church in Harlem, she visited the convent and told Mother Superior that she wanted to become a nun.
“The nun told her, ‘No, you’re not going into the convent. You’re going to become the mother of a priest,” Father recalled. So every day at Mass, Dorothy prayed that one of her sons would enter the priesthood. And her youngest did.
After eighth grade, Father was accepted at the Little Seminary of St. Joseph and the Little Flower, but his family had to move to New York City because his father needed to find work during the Depression.
They lived in The Bronx, and he attended Cathedral College, a preparatory seminary across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. However, they returned to Buffalo a year later, and he resumed his studies at the Little Seminary. He later entered the Columban Fathers order because he wanted to be a missionary priest and take the Gospel message to foreign countries, and on December 18, 1943, he was ordained with 13 other men at St. Joseph Cathedral in Buffalo.
“I wanted to go to China, but China was closed and they were kicking priests out,” he recalled. “The war was on and they couldn’t give us assignments in the missions so we were loaned to different dioceses.”
His first assignment was at St. Joachim Church in Buffalo, until he became vocations director at a seminary the Columban Fathers opened in Milton, Massachusetts. For 17 years, he toured the country, looking for young men who had a calling to the priesthood.
When his younger sister, who was a nurse in Buffalo, needed care, he volunteered because he was teaching nearby at the Columban Fathers’ Silver Creek Seminary.
“I was the only one available who could help her,” he recalled.
With her treatment came financial responsibilities, but he had no money because missionary priests did not receive a salary, so he asked to be assigned to the Diocese of Buffalo. Since there were no openings, his superior suggested that he apply to the newly formed Diocese of Bridgeport.
The response was immediate. “Send him down and I’ll put him to work,” Bishop Lawrence Shehan told the superior, and in 1960 Fr. Brady arrived at St. Mary’s in Greenwich, where he taught religion at the parish high school. He was later transferred to St. Paul’s in Glenville. Then, in 1968 during the fourth week of Lent, he was named pastor at St. Margaret Mary’s in Shelton.
Another of his trademarks is “Father Brady’s Holy Fudge,” which was sold in Vermont and New Hampshire at roadside stands and country stores. Father still makes batches of his fudge from his personal recipe, and sends them to Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, Archbishop William Lori, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, and many others, including Pam Rittman.
(Please participate in this year’s, Arise, Annual Catholic Appeal by giving as generously as your means allow. You may mail your gift in the enclosed envelope in this issue, make a donation online at www.2021ACABridgeport.com or text the word APPEAL to 475.241.7849. Donations of whatever amount will help us to help those in need.)
By Joe Pisani
