Florida Catholic | God-Given Talents Shine As Deacon Becomes A Priest

God-given talents shine as deacon becomes a priest

LINDA REEVES | FLORIDA CATHOLIC PALM BEACH BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 04.11.08

Father Andrew Brierley watches as the flag is raised at St. Vincent Ferrer School.
LINDA REEVES | FC

DELRAY BEACH | Those who work with him say it’s apparent Father Andrew Brierley is finally fulfilling God’s purpose for him as an abundance of new talents begin to emerge.

“He is a hard worker,” said Father Yves François, director of the diocesan Vocations Office. “He puts his heart into everything he does. He is someone who is not afraid of trying new things, and he has a lot to offer the Diocese of Palm Beach.”

Father Brierley, 46, is the oldest son of Dennis and Dorothy Brierley, parents of five and residents of West Palm Beach six months out of the year. The tall British man with piercing blue eyes and a big smile is the diocese’s newest priest, ordained April 4 at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola in Palm Beach Gardens.

Priests, seminarians and parishioners from around the diocese were on hand to prayerfully and joyfully participate in the ordination ceremony, along with more than 50 Brierley family members and friends from England.

“I am very excited,” said Father François, about the first priestly ordination since he became diocesan director of vocations in July 2007. “We need more priests.”

The diocese’s last ordination of a new priest was June 10, 2006, when Father Carl Hellwig Jr., now at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Port St. Lucie, pledged his life to the service of God.

“It is good news for the diocese,” said Father François, who hopes to be at the side of another seminarian, Elifaite St. Fort, during ordination ceremonies at the end of this year.

JASON COLLINS | FC
Father Andrew Brierley lies prostrate before the altar as the congregation and choir sing the Litany of the Saints.

JASON COLLINS | FC
Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito lays his hands on the head of Father Brierley and prays for the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

JASON COLLINS | FC
Following the bishop, priests who attended the ordination also pray over the new priest for an infusion of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

ON THE JOURNEY

Father Brierley said he took a few twists and turns along his long journey to his ordination.

“It has been long, and I am feeling it,” he said.

Born in Hadfield in northern England, Father Brierley was baptized Anglican. He attended a grammar school for boys, high school and Kingston University in London.

“Looking back, I think I first knew God was calling me when I was 4,” he said. At age 18, he again felt a call to the Anglican priesthood, but after college he decided to attend law school and earned degrees from the Inns of Court School of Law. After graduation, he became a trial lawyer in London.

Father Brierley discovered Catholicism and began attending a Catholic church in the early 1990s. He converted in 1994, when the Anglican Church began to ordain women. He and about 30 others were all received into the Catholic Church by the late Cardinal Basil Hume during a wave of Anglican converts at the time, he said.

Life in London went on and so did his work as a prosecutor, dealing with what many considered to be “the worst of the worst,” from murderers to child offenders.

After 15 years in the legal field, Father Brierley’s heart called him beyond the courtrooms and the comfortable lifestyle to which he was accustomed.

“I became a lawyer because I really didn’t know what else to do,” he explained. “I thought I wanted to be a priest, but wasn’t sure. I entered into seminary in England in 1999.”

He was accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Westminster in Great Britain. His studies took him to Rome, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Today, Father Brierley looks back and reflects on the other men who entered the seminary with him.

“When I first began seminary in London, 16 of us started for the diocese,” he said. “I am the only one being ordained. The others left.”

After a visit to the United States, Father Brierley’s path shifted again. “I saw the way the church is so alive here in Florida,” he explained.

He applied to the Diocese of Palm Beach in 2004 to study as a seminarian here. He was accepted and began his studies at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.

COMING TO FLORIDA

Father Brierley’s seminary training included a year of service at St. Juliana in West Palm Beach, where he was ordained as a deacon last May.

“He is willing to do what needs to be done with a smile,” said Father Alfredo Hernandez, pastor of St. Juliana Parish about then-Deacon Brierley’s parish service. “He is a good preacher and a good teacher. Here at St. Juliana, he worked with the children at the school. He visited the sick and the lonely.”

In August last year, Deacon Brierley was assigned to St. Vincent Ferrer in Delray Beach, where he currently resides.

Deacon Brierley took charge of the youth ministry at the parish on the request of Father Thomas Skindeleski, the pastor, and helped to expand programs and attendance. He also taught religion at the school at all the grade levels.

“He has been here for eight months, and he has been good with the youths,” said parish manager John Krolikowski. “I have a second-grader and a boy in kindergarten. The things my children learned this year from him are amazing. It is not easy to work with young children. It takes talent.”

St. Vincent students and staff loaded a bus and traveled to Palm Beach Gardens to attend the ordination ceremonies and show support for their beloved deacon and teacher.

“He is a great mentor,” said Sister of Mercy Mary Clare Fennell, principal of the school. “The children love him. We have been praying for him. We are excited for him.”

“In the past eight months, Deacon Andrew has become a special fixture here in our midst, and demonstrated many talents with which God has bless him,” wrote Father Skindeleski in a church bulletin announcing the ordination at the cathedral. “When he arrived last August … I asked him especially to become involved with the young people of our parish. There were a myriad of other roles he assumed upon my request, and I am especially grateful for his willingness to do all that he did. I hope that his good example these past months will be part of the inspiration for other young men to consider answering God’s call to become a priest.”

Father Brierley is described as quiet and reserved by many of the people who work with him. He is a history buff, enjoys Italian opera, scuba diving and a good cup of tea. He said that his work as a seminarian has been a joy.

“When I first started in the seminary, if someone had said, ‘You will be ordained for a southern American diocese in eight years,’ it was not on the horizon. It was never on my radar that I would end up in this place at this time to serve the church here. The years that I have been here in the diocese have gone by very quickly. I love parish work. I love it — being with the people. That is what I feel I am called to do.”

On April 5, Father Brierley celebrated his first Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish. A reception followed. The following day he celebrated Mass at St. Juliana in the evening.

Return to Diocese of Palm Beach Front Page

God-given talents shine as deacon becomes a priest

Other Stories