DOUGLASTON — Lolita Olaco wasn’t able to attend the funeral for her cousin, Father Godofredo Felicitas, when he passed away in March at 72 because she was visiting her native Philippines. So, it was a special moment for her to attend the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Mass for deceased bishops, priests, and deacons at the Immaculate Conception Center on Nov. 5.
“I am glad that I came,” Olaco told the Tablet. “It was touching to me. I cried … It was like the Holy Spirit was here.”
Olaco, who lives in Staten Island, heard Father Felicitas’ name read aloud as one of 19 clergy members from the diocese who died between October 2025 and October 2026. Father Felicitas, who was the coordinator of the Filipino Apostolate, served as parochial vicar for St. Robert Bellarmine in Bayside and St. Athanasius in Bensonhurst.
Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated the Mass and was joined on the altar by Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio, auxiliary bishops James Massa and Witold Mroziewski, and auxiliary bishop emeriti Neil Tiedemann, Raymond Chappetto, Octavio Cisneros, and Paul Sanchez.
“Our priests and our deacons have touched many, many lives, and they served the Gospel,” Bishop Brennan told The Tablet. “The very point of their ministry, everything they did there, a lot of good work, but it all points to this moment — to the fact that they were meant to live forever with God.”
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Paul Lima, whose dad, Deacon Ramon Lima, died Nov. 25, 2025, at age 88, said the Mass was deeply meaningful. Deacon Lima, ordained in 1977, served many churches over the years, including his first assignment at St. Leo Church in Corona.
“There were deacons that my father counseled for decades. This was really an amazing tribute, not only to him, but also to all of the others who passed away in the last year,” he said, calling it, “a touching tribute.”
Following the Mass, Bishop Brennan, the auxiliary bishops, and priests processed from the main chapel on the first floor to the Bishop’s Chapel on the lower level. Bishop Brennan, Bishop Emeritus DiMarzio, and the auxiliary bishops prayed in the crypt behind the chapel, where the remains of several of the diocese’s previous bishops are interred.
The annual Mass is usually celebrated within days of All Souls’ Day, when the faithful are asked to remember and pray for the souls of the deceased, a tradition Bishop Brennan said connects today’s clergy to those who came before.
“We try to build on the good work of our predecessors,” he added. “You think about the priests and deacons who served here for the last 100, almost 175 years, and we’ve inherited a tremendous legacy from those who’ve gone before us.”
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