When he celebrated his 60th anniversary this May, Father Mark Connolly was also celebrating as many years in radio and television production.
A native of Boston, Father Connolly was ordained to the priesthood on May 3, 1957. He specialized in the field of theology and psychology while preparing for ordination, but from the very first years his priesthood he was involved in the field of communications in radio and television as a writer, producer and director.
Even as a young priest, he was a frequent radio lecturer for The Catholic Hour, a program that featured guest speakers on a number of different topics including communism, racism in America and interracial justice, and the role of the Catholic Church in government. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen often hosted the program.
Father Connolly started The Sunday Mass on television in the New York Area in 1970. The production, which had taken two years of planning, first aired on December 9, 1970, on Channel 9. It had an estimated viewing audience of more than three-quarters of a million people in the greater New York area. To accompany the program, he composed a TV Prayer Guide, a semiannual missal/prayer book. It was first distributed in 1972 with a run of 6,800. Over two million copies have been distributed.
Passionist Communications continues to produce The Sunday Mass on several local channels and the EWTN Network.
Father Connolly founded Clemons Productions in 1980 with radio and television programs designed to reach a wide audience. With that in place, he organized and produced a second TV program, That’s the Spirit, which debuted in 1981 and aired in New York. In its first four years, it won three Emmy nominations. Although Father Connolly is now retired, Clemons Productions is still going strong.
Coming to this diocese in 1991, he served as parochial vicar of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Greenwich. But that didn’t slow his interest in outreach. He was soon tapped by Bishop Edward M. Egan to become the director of the Office of Radio and Television for the Diocese of Bridgeport, and in 1993 he created a weekly radio program from the diocese called “Thoughts for the Week.” Bishop Frank J. Caggiano was the guest speaker on the broadcast this Easter Sunday.
Far in advance of his time, in 1995 Father Connolly launched the first Catholic Internet magazine, “Spirituality for Today” (www.spirituality.org). He was the first Catholic priest to undertake such an endeavor. The magazine has been given the Catholic Family Life Site Excellence Award.
Father Connolly retired in 2008, but as he looks back on a lifetime in communications, he can be sure that his efforts will bear fruit far into the future.
