Several Redemptorist priests with ties to the Diocese of Brooklyn are celebrating significant anniversaries of their ordinations to the priesthood. They are:
50 YEARS ORDAINED
Father Brendan Greany, C.Ss.R., a native of New York City, professed first vows as a Redemptorist in 1958. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 23, 1963.
He served Redemptorist missions in Brazil for 25 years.
He returned to the U.S. in 1990 and, after a sabbatical, served briefly on the retreat team at Mount St. Alphonsus Retreat Center in Esopus, N.Y., before being assigned as associate pastor of St. Martin of Tours parish in Bethpage, L.I., in 1991.
After assignments in Pennsylvania and Maryland, he moved to the St. John Neumann Residence, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Since 2012, he has been in residence at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sunset Park.
Father John Hamrogue, C.Ss.R., a native of Brooklyn, professed first vows as a Redemptorist in 1958. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 23, 1963.
Before beginning his ministry, he finished a post-graduate degree at Catholic University; he would later finish another at Fordham University in New York.
His first assignment was as a teacher at the Redemptorists’ St. Alphonsus College in Suffield, Conn., where he later also served as prefect of students.
He was assigned as associate pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis, Md., and then at St. Peter the Apostle, Philadelphia, in 1981.
In 1990, he was assigned to the Redemptorist missions in the English-speaking Caribbean where he served in Dominica and St. Lucia in the West Indies.
In 1998, he began a six-year tenure as associate pastor of his home parish, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Sunset Park.
In 2004, he returned to St. Peter’s in Philadelphia for one year and then was assigned in 2005 to St. Mary’s, Annapolis, to work with the Hispanic community. After a brief time again in Brooklyn, he returned to St. Peter’s as an associate pastor in 2010.
40 YEARS ORDAINED
Father John Murray, C.Ss.R., was born in Brooklyn and professed first vows as a Redemptorist on Aug. 2, 1966. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 17, 1973.
He worked as vocation director for the Baltimore Province from 1974 to 1981 when he was appointed pastor of St. Wenceslaus parish, Baltimore. He became pastor of St. Mary’s, Annapolis, in 1987 and served there for six years.
In 1993, he was appointed rector of the Redemptorists’ San Alfonso Retreat House, Long Branch, N.J. From 1999 to 2010, he served as parish mission coordinator for the province.
In August, 2010, he suffered a paralyzing fall while on his daily walk. Despite being paralyzed from the chest down and told he’d never walk again, Father Murray has gradually regained much of his mobility, now using crutches and a wheelchair to get around.
He has been in residence at his home parish, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Sunset Park, since 2012 and continues as parish mission coordinator.
