Priests describe Brennan as ‘roll-up-your-sleeves’ bishop

By Tim Puet
For The Catholic Times

A priest who worked closely with Bishop Robert Brennan said one of the hallmarks of his 2 ½ years as spiritual shepherd of the Diocese of Columbus was his active involvement with the diocese’s priests.

“I think of Bishop Brennan as a ‘roll-up-your-sleeves’ bishop,” Father Michael Lumpe said. “As Pope Francis might say, he didn’t mind ‘smelling like the sheep.’ He would never ask anyone to do something he wouldn’t do himself.”

An incident that occurred in 2019 while Father Lumpe was rector of Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral provided an example of the bishop’s willingness to pitch in whenever necessary.

“We were getting ready for a wedding one weekend, and everybody on the cathedral maintenance staff was down with the flu,” he said. “I told the bishop I was going to do cleanup work in their absence, and he said, ‘I know how to operate a bucket and mop from when I was a pastor on Long Island.’ So he grabbed a bucket, and the two of us went to work.”

Father Lumpe was rector of the cathedral from 2013 until becoming vice rector of the College of Liberal Arts at the Pontifical College Josephinum in 2019. He also was diocesan vicar for priests, the bishop’s chief liaison with diocesan clergy, until Father William Hahn recently was appointed to the new position of vicar for clergy. Father Hahn also is the diocese’s vocations director, with Father Lumpe now serving as vicar for senior and infirm priests.

“I first learned of Bishop Brennan’s appointment to Columbus when Bishop (Frederick) Campbell told the diocesan Chancery staff the news,” Father Lumpe said. “We were given his biography, and the first thing I thought was, ‘Why is my birthday listed here?’” Both were born on June 7, two years apart.

“(Diocesan vicar general) Msgr. (Stephan) Moloney and I had dinner with him when he came here from the Diocese of Rockville Centre (New York, where he was auxiliary bishop) a few days before his installation here, and he wanted to know as much as he could about the diocese right away. 

“He asked Msgr. Moloney and I what we wanted to see in the diocese. I mentioned that I’d like to see more priests teaching in high schools and hoped we could have a vocations director who could devote more time to that role rather than also serve as pastor of a parish,” Father Lumpe said. Both changes were put into place during Bishop Brennan’s tenure.

“Coming from a diocese in New York that consists of just two suburban counties, he really enjoyed exploring the 23 counties of our diocese and how it includes urban, suburban and rural areas,” he said. 

“As an auxiliary bishop, he did a lot of administrative work, so being able to serve as a bishop and spiritual leader of a diocese brought him great joy. He said, ‘I get to be a priest again.’

“In that priestly role, he always was talking to people, learning about their faith life and how to enhance it. When the COVID pandemic came, Dr. Marian Schuda, a specialist in geriatric medicine, taught many of our priests the protocols involved with going to hospitals to visit COVID patients. The bishop wanted to be part of that, but we cautioned him about it because of the concerns about how it would affect his role as bishop if he were to have COVID,” Father Lumpe said. 

Msgr. David Sorohan, the longtime pastor of Columbus St. Catharine of Siena Church and a former diocesan school superintendent, died on Christmas Day 2020 at Mount Carmel East Hospital, where he was a COVID patient. “When I told the bishop Msgr. Sorohan was dying, he said he wanted to give him the Last Rites,” Father Lumpe said. “So he went with me to Mount Carmel, and we got him gowned up with all the personal protective equipment he needed.

“Msgr. Sorohan was surprised and grateful. The bishop administered the sacrament of anointing of the sick and gave him communion, then they had a pleasant conversation in which the bishop thanked him for his years of service. Father Justin Reis was a COVID patient a couple doors down. He was sedated at the time, but the bishop did the same for him.” Father Reis died of COVID-related issues at Mother Angeline McCrory Manor on March 2.

The bishop also was at Father Victor Wesolowski’s side just before his death July 27. “Whenever I told Bishop Brennan a priest was seriously ill, he’d drop whatever was on his schedule and off we’d go to see the priest,” Father Lumpe said. “Bishop Campbell was the same way. They wanted to be with their brother priests when they were preparing to complete their lives of service to Jesus and the Church.”

Bishop Brennan and most of the diocese’s priests gathered at Maumee Bay State Park near Toledo for a four-day convocation in fall 2019. “It was a very fruitful time because we were able to pray together as brother priests and get away together at a place outside the diocese to discuss common concerns and learn from each other,” Father Lumpe said. “The bishop wanted to have more of this type of gathering. Then COVID came along, and there never was a chance for another large meeting like this, but the bishop had many other meetings with priests at the presbyterate level.”

Father Hahn, the vocations director, said, “Bishop Brennan set a great example for young men discerning the priesthood and for those considering entering the seminary, and they were very excited about his interest in them. You could see that when he visited the Josephinum, which he did frequently in his role as its vice chancellor. The seminarians loved his involvement with them, and his sense of engagement set a great example.

“He wanted them to get a better sense of what parish work was like before they began serving as priests, so he introduced a pastoral year at a parish between their second and third years of theology studies. When COVID halted the summer Spanish immersion period in Latin America, it was replaced by activities at the parishes in the diocese with large Latino populations, and that will continue.

“Bishop Brennan has said the future of vocations is not so much about numbers as it is about helping everyone discern their calling, whether it is to the religious life or life as a married or single member of the laity. He doesn’t want anyone to feel pressured into religious service,” Father Hahn said.

Before coming to the Josephinum, Father Hahn was pastor of a group of churches in Chillicothe, Waverly and Washington Court House. He said the bishop paid several visits to those parishes, and their members were pleased that these were for events other than confirmations. 

“The bishop was all over the place, so much so that for a while, St. Gabriel Radio had a ‘Where’s the Bishop?’ feature to track his travels,” Father Hahn said.