Two priests become auxiliary bishops in St. Agnes ordination

In a joyous ceremony before a crowd that filled St. Agnes Cathedral on July 25, the Most Rev. William Murphy, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, installed the Rev. Monsignor Robert J. Brennan, 50, and the Rev. Monsignor Nelson J. Perez, 51, as auxiliary bishops at a Mass of Episcopal Ordination. The two were selected by Pope Benedict XVI.

“I wish to express my fervent thanks to the Holy Father for responding so quickly to my request for two auxiliary bishops to help me pastor the fifth-largest diocese in our nation,” Murphy said in a written statement. “God has blessed this diocese with good and holy priests and now two new auxiliary bishops, one a native son, the second, a Cuban-American who will bring his many gifts and his Latino language, culture and heritage to enrich this wonderful diocese.”

The cathedral was filled with members of the Brennan and Perez families as well as friends and co-workers, along with nearly 200 priests and deacons from the Rockville Centre Diocese and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. At the altar with Murphy were two co-consecrators, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput and Bishop Paul Walsh, a Rockville Centre auxiliary; Cardinal Justin Rigali, from Philadelphia, and Cardinal Edward Egan, of the Archdiocese of New York; and dozens of other bishops.

Brennan was born in the Bronx and raised in Lindenhurst, where he attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School. He continued his education at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip, and graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in mathematics and computer science. He studied for the priesthood at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, where he earned a master’s of divinity.