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Bishop Brennan to be installed as Bishop of Brooklyn at Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph

November 23, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
Bishop Robert J. Brennan, soon to be the eighth bishop of Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of Diocese of Brooklyn
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Bishop Robert J. Brennan will be installed as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn at a Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, 856 Pacific St. in Prospect Heights on Tuesday, Nov. 30. 

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, archbishop of New York, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States of America, will officiate at the ceremony.

Bishop Brennan, who has led the Diocese of Columbus (Ohio) since 2019, was named by Pope Francis to succeed Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio on Sept. 29, 2021. 

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Bishop DiMarzio’s mandatory letter of resignation was sent to  Pope Francis on his 75th birthday.

Brooklyn’s new bishop will lead a diocese of more than 1.3 million Catholics. The diocese, informally known as the Diocese of Immigrants, includes both Brooklyn and Queens. 

Bishop Brennan has pledged to strengthen the Catholic schools and academies in Brooklyn and Queens, work with and support the immigrant communities, and focus on evangelizing Catholics through various means of communication and social media. 

The Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Wikimedia photo by Jim Henderson

Bishop Brennan was born on June 7, 1962, to Robert and Patricia Brennan in the Bronx and was raised in Lindenhurst, Long Island. Bishop Brennan attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in Lindenhurst and St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip. He earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics and computer science from St. John’s University in Queens. 

Bishop Brennan completed his studies for the priesthood at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre on May 27, 1989, by then-Bishop John McGann. His first parish assignment was at the Church of St. Patrick in Smithtown.  In 1994, he was appointed as Secretary to the Bishop, served in this capacity for three bishops, then was ordained as an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Rockville Centre on July 25, 2012. 

Bishop Brennan was then appointed the 12th Bishop of Columbus on Jan. 31, 2019, and was installed on March 29, 2019.  Bishop Brennan has served with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as a member of the Committee for Catholic Education, the Administrative Committee and the Priorities and Plans Committee.

For the past few months, Bishop Brennan has been meeting with Catholic clergy in the diocese to talk about his plans. At a Mass on Sept. 29 that a delegation of police officers attended, Bishop Brennan remarked, “I’m looking forward to getting to know each and every one of you. I want to serve you with all my heart.”

Bishop DiMarzio also said in September that Bishop Brennan “knows New York. He is someone familiar with the issues here. He’s a quick study. He knows a lot of the priests already in the diocese.”


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