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At funeral, Msgr. John Brady, ‘father of Catholic Scouting,’ honored by fellow priests and Scout leaders

Msgr. John Brady, the longtime priest chaplain for Scouting in the Archdiocese of Washington, shows Scouts how to make rosaries during a national Jamboree in Virginia in the summer of 2005. Msgr. Brady died on Sept. 9, 2021 at the age of 92. (CS file photo by Michael Hoyt)

The mourners at the Funeral Mass for Msgr. John B. Brady Jr. reflected many of the key priorities of his priesthood and his life. The people gathered to pray for him at that Sept. 17 Mass at St. Bartholomew Church in Bethesda, Maryland included about two dozen fellow priests, an equal number of uniformed Scouting leaders, many people from area parishes where he served, and his family members.

Msgr. Brady, 92, died on Sept. 9 after suffering from health complications caused by COVID-19. In his 66 years as a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, he served as a parish priest in Southern Maryland, Washington, D.C., and the Maryland suburbs, and at the time of his death, he was the archdiocese’s oldest and longest-serving priest.

Known as the “father of Catholic Scouting” in the Archdiocese of Washington, Msgr. Brady served as a Scout chaplain for more than six decades. In 1971, he was appointed as the archdiocesan chaplain for Scouting, and his service in that ministry included 49 years as a chaplain at the Goshen Scout camp in Virginia.

Msgr. John Brady is shown attending a 2005 national Scouting Jamboree in Virginia, one of many that he served at as a priest chaplain over the years. (CS file photo by Michael Hoyt)

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, was the main celebrant at Msgr. Brady’s Funeral Mass, and said they gathered to commend to God “one of our beloved senior priests.”

In remarks after Communion, the cardinal noted that he had a meeting with Msgr. Brady about a month after arriving as the new archbishop in 2019, and the veteran priest had a spiritual program that he wanted the archdiocese to embark upon.

“He didn’t want to talk about yesterday. He wanted to talk about tomorrow,” Cardinal Gregory said. “I think that’s one of the great tributes we can give to him. His priesthood was always focused on tomorrow, what could the Church do for its future. His heart was filled with joy for tomorrow, and we are filled with gratitude for his yesterdays of service to this local Church.”

In his homily, Father Charles McCann, a fellow retired priest who had served in recent years with Msgr. Brady at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Clinton, noted their friendship spanned more than five decades, and began when he came to the archdiocese from his native Ireland for his first assignment, as a parochial vicar at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington in 1969, and Msgr. Brady, also serving in that role there, became his friend and mentor.

Father McCann remembered how when he received his first call to anoint a dying man, Msgr. Brady accompanied him and anointed the man, showing a prayerfulness and spirituality that Father McCann said he witnessed in his fellow priest many times over the years.

“Everything he did, he did for the Lord,” said Father McCann.

Noting Msgr. Brady’s long devotion to Scouting, the homilist said, “He felt it was a wonderful opportunity to influence young boys’ minds at an important age.”

The retired priest also pointed out how Msgr. Brady, whether he was serving as a chaplain at a Scouting campout, traveling to a foreign country, or on a canoeing adventure near the Arctic Circle, “always brought his Mass kit with him and offered Mass every day.”

Father Jaime Hernández, now the pastor of St. Gabriel Parish in Washington who in recent years was the pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Clinton where he served with Msgr. Brady, offered words of tribute to the priest in Spanish at the Funeral Mass. At St. John’s, Msgr. Brady was taking Spanish lessons so he could serve that parish’s growing Hispanic community.

The concelebrants at the Mass included Washington Auxiliary Bishops Mario Dorsonville and Roy Campbell Jr.; Father Mark Knestout, St. Bartholomew’s pastor; and Father Mario Majano, the new pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish.

After his ordination to the priesthood in 1955, then-Father Brady’s first assignment was as a parochial vicar at Holy Redeemer Parish in Kensington. While there, he began serving as a Scouting chaplain and was also a chaplain at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. From 1966 to 1971, he served as a parochial vicar at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington.

Msgr. John Brady, shown greeting a student from Holy Angels-Sacred Heart School in Avenue after a Mass in 2005, retired as pastor of Holy Angels Parish that year. In the photo below, he stands outside Holy Angels Church. (CS file photo by Michael Hoyt)

For more than three decades, Msgr. Brady served as a pastor in Southern Maryland, from 1974 to 1985 at St. Joseph in Pomfret, then until 1994 as pastor of St. John Vianney in Prince Frederick, then at Holy Angels in Avenue until his retirement in 2005.

“He knew what his priorities were as a priest,” said Sister Marian Brady, a Sister of Providence and his older sister who now lives at Bartholomew House in Bethesda.

Msgr. Brady’s survivors include his three siblings, Sister Marian Brady, the former president of Immaculata College in Washington and a former professor in the theology department at The Catholic University of America; Rubert Brady of Bethesda, a retired patent and trademark attorney; and Therese Brady Donohue of Amherst, Massachusetts, the founder and former director of the Amherst Ballet Company. He is also survived by 10 nieces and nephews, 17 great nieces and nephews and one great-great nephew.

The son of the late John B. Brady and Mary Rupert Brady, Msgr. Brady grew up as a member of St. Ann’s Parish in Washington, where he was baptized, received his First Communion and the sacrament of Confirmation, and celebrated his first Mass, and where as a youth he became a member of Boy Scout Troop 4, later becoming an Eagle Scout and Scout master with that troop.

While pastor of St. Joseph in Pomfret, Msgr. Brady recorded and sold cassette tapes of talks by Archbishop Fulton Sheen to raise funds for rebuilding that parish’s historic church. At St. John Vianney in Prince Frederick, he oversaw planning, fundraising and the construction of the new parish center there. Then at Holy Angels in Avenue, he led the effort to renovate its parish hall and school building. At Holy Angels, he started a parish Sea Scout group.

The priest also undertook several notable adventures over the years, including a canoeing trip in the summer of 1970 on rivers in the upper Northwest Territories of Canada to the Arctic Circle, and he later retraced the route of the gold rush to Alaska from Canada’s Yukon territory.

For more than three decades of his 66 years as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, Msgr. John Brady served as a pastor in Southern Maryland, first at St. Joseph in Pomfret, then at St. John Vianney in Prince Frederick and then at Holy Angels in Avenue. In the photo below, Msgr. Brady is shown celebrating Mass in 1985, the year he became left St. Joseph Parish to become pastor of St. John Vianney Parish. (CS file photo by Michael Hoyt)

The Scouting leaders attending Msgr. Brady’s Funeral Mass included Dick Stevick, a member of St. Mary of the Mills Parish in Laurel who serves as a lay coordinator for the Archdiocese of Washington’s Catholic Committee on Scouting, and Chris Murray, a member of St. Raphael Parish in Rockville who serves as the chair of Boy Scouting for that committee.

Stevick, who shared a copy of a booklet written by Msgr. Brady, “Higher Than Eagles,” which offered interfaith meditations for Scouts, noted that the priest was devoted to Scouts, and as their chaplain would celebrate Masses for them at small campouts and at large Jamborees.

“No matter where he was, he would connect with the youth,” said Stevick. “They would always remember him, and they always wanted to help him, and serve with him on the altar.”

That point was echoed by Murray, who said, “He was always there. Whenever you needed a priest, he was there.”

Over the years, Msgr. Brady celebrated Masses for Scouts in campouts and retreats besides lakes, rivers, forests and near mountains, and he had the honor of being a chaplain at national Jamborees.

“It (Scouting) is really a vocations program,” he said in an interview. “It helps young people determine what they should do with their life.”

Each year, the Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Youth Ministry honors someone for their outstanding service in Catholic Scouting by presenting them with the Msgr. John Brady Award named for the priest. 

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