Newly Ordained Father Michael Connolly has been assigned by
Timothy Cardinal Dolan to serve at St. Columba beginning June 15. We are
grateful to His Eminence for having the confidence in our parish to support and
guide Father Connolly as he begins his priesthood. Here is an article about him
from Catholic New York:
When Cardinal Dolan and talk show host and comedian Stephen
Colbert appeared at Fordham University six years ago to discuss faith and
humor, neither could know how the event encouraged then-Fordham student Michael
Connolly to listen to a call deep within himself. “We were all abuzz about it
in the dorms, and getting ready to get on line and get our ticket,” Father
Connolly, now 25, recalled. Leading up to that, “all I heard was, ‘Oh, I’m
going to go see Colbert. Hey, are you going to go to Colbert?’ “I found myself
thinking, I’m going to see the Cardinal. Then I thought about that and was
like, Why do I feel that way? I just had this reaction: no, I’m not going to
see Colbert, I’m going to see the Cardinal, and then wondered, Whoa. Why?” Once
there, he saw the cardinal descend the lobby stairs and cheerfully greet
people. “I just felt this complete joy come over me, because it just emanates
from him. I thought, I have to have that joy.” He concedes that his devout
practice of the faith, rooted in childhood, “took a backseat” freshman year of
college, at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. Despite all the fun he was having,
“I just got to this point where I was so lonely, sad and empty. “God gave me a
graced conversion moment and I just could see how horribly dark I felt.”
Without thinking, he went to the chapel. He apologized to God and asked him to
show him what he wanted him to do. “At that point, it wasn’t even necessarily
priesthood. The first step was just coming back” to Church. “God bringing me
back was like getting to meet myself all over again.” Now, through the
priesthood, “robed with Him as my armor, I can go back in and communicate that,
and sort of be like a missionary to millennials,” Father Connolly said. “But
what’s so confusing for us millennials right now is that we’re being told from
everywhere else that there’s no such thing as a mistake; whatever you feel like
doing, that’s what you should do, that’s the truth, that’s the good thing.”
Millennials are owed much more credit than they’re given. “We can take it, and,
in fact, we want it,” Father Connolly said. “We’re not going to just fall apart
if you tell me that there is such a thing as sin and poor choices. We want to
know the truth.” Born in Sleepy Hollow, the second of John and Ruthann
Connolly’s three sons is the brother of John Jr., 28, and Brian, 24. “I’ve
grown up in very supportive, faithful family,” Father Connolly said. “A very
important highlight of my family is my brother John, who has cerebral palsy.
He’s taught me so much about enduring all kinds of suffering with joy and faith
and hope, and even with gratitude. “I’ve also learned firsthand you don’t
simply minister to a person with special needs; around that person is a whole
family, a whole network of people who are affected by that situation...It’s
definitely taught me compassion and patience.” He graduated from St. Augustine
School in Ossining and John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers. At
church, he was a lector beginning at age 7 and an altar server at age 11. While
a student Fordham, he entered the college seminary formation program in
Douglaston, Queens, in 2013. After earning a bachelor’s in philosophy from
Fordham, he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie in 2014.
