Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign welcome to this week's edition of Big City Catholics. I'm your host, Bishop Roderick Brennan, Bishop of Brooklyn, serving in Brooklyn and Queens. And I appreciate you being with us this week. When I was in the Sikh Conference back in early January, I had the chance to catch up with Dan Tully, a Brooklyn native who's been serving in Focus, and I thought I would share our conversation with all of you. Let's take a minute first to say a quick prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord God, we thank you for your many blessings and we thank you for the many holy people we encounter where we see your workings in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We thank you, Lord, for the ways that you built up the communion of your church, that you pull us together to experience your presence in more powerful ways in word and in sacrament and through our service to one another. We ask you to bless the work that we do and to guide us in your ways. We make this prayer as well, through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, amen. So I'm going to recapped in and you can fill in the blanks, but I remember meeting you way back when I was new to Brooklyn. I went to St. Augustine Church, really, to do the massive reparation after the desecration of the tabernacle. And it was a bittersweet kind of experience in some ways. You know, the sadness of what had happened in the parish church, but also the beauty of the faith of the people who were there. But I got there early because that's my job, to get there ahead of time and get things prepared. And I happened to see you praying the rosary and I was just struck by your reverence, by your prayer. And I said, there's some depth to this fellow. And at the end of Mass, I had the chance to greet you and that was great. Fast forward a few months later, I'm at the Sikh conference in St. Louis. The first time we were in St. Louis and. And you made it a point to come and reintroduce yourself to me, which is really impressive. It's a nice thing when somebody does that. You meet many, many people. And when somebody comes back and says, I met you at St. Augustine's it all came back to me right away. That's when I said, thought there was some depth to you, but this guy has class too, so got to know a little more and that I did not Know, I don't think maybe I did that. You were Focus Missionary, and you were working in New York. Then the year later, you were back at Seek, and you were my guide. A missionary is assigned to each bishop, and so it was a great thing. And you gave me the great news of your engagement. And so I said, this is wonderful. And when I saw you here at this conference, I said, this is a good chance, really, for us to sit down, chat with each other, but also just share that road. I mean, one of the great things is the fruits of our college campus, ministry of Focus Ministry's holy vocation, and you're living that in marriage. So take me back. You remember that when we first met.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: I do, I do. And my mom and I both fondly remember your homily where you gave the analogy of the fracture in your Croatia.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: That's right, the Croatia.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: I still think about that metaphor to this day. In my own spiritual life, when I have a weakness, the Lord can patch it up to be something of a strength.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah, so exactly.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: I remember that day.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: That's right. I used that at the Chrismos, but I would have forgotten that I used it there. And that did fit the occasion. You know, it was a Marian's priest who repaired it for me, and when he gave it back, he said that it's like human bones. And they say that where the break was, is that now the strongest part? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: That was a great day. That must have been, what, summer of 22?
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Yes, the early summer, because the event took place just before Memorial Day weekend. And so it was the weekend after.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Okay. Wow.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: So that was right after my junior year at Brown had ended, that we met. And at that point.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: So when I met you the following year, you were there as a student. That's right.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. At that C conference in St. Louis.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: But after college, after Brown, you yourself became a Focus missionary. You gave yourself into the work.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: That fall, the missionaries at Brown who were helping me lead my own Bible study and lead other men in discipleship, one of whom became my best man at that point in that fall, they invited me to come to the interview weekend for prospective applicants to become missionaries. And I was not sold on the idea before I went, but in Virginia, over the course of the weekend, I realized that the real reason I was hesitant was just fear and selfishness and a desire to have a sense of control over the future. And the Lord really convicted me at that time that this was the. This was a unique opportunity he was giving me to live out the Great Commission in a full time capacity, knowing I was going to get married full time. Mission work would only get harder.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: So I. It seemed clear to me that this was the time to do it. And I believe I was the first Brown University undergraduate to ever say yes to Focus. I wasn't the first graduate in general, but I was the first one in. And there were three more after me that year.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Two of whom were in our wedding party and one of whom was our cantor.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: I ran into. I don't know if he was in your wedding party or if he was your best man. I think he was your best Morgan.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Yes, Morgan was one of my groups.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: That's the connection. So Morgan is my connection for Bishop Focus this year.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: So he's looking after me and making sure I get to where I need to be on time.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Morgan's also my godfather and.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: That's right. He told me that you were his godfather and then he said he was in your wedding. And I think your wedding took a little bit of travel, didn't it?
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Yes. My mother in law and sister in law live in Maui. I never met my father in law. He passed away a few years ago, God rest his soul. But as Jules and I were deciding where we wanted the wedding to be, we had this intense trade off. We could have a free reception in a beautiful tropical paradise in my mother in law's backyard.
But a lot of my relatives wouldn't be able to make the trek, either financially or logistically. So we decided in the end it was worth it. Sadly, a lot of my extended family couldn't attend it. But it was an extraordinary wedding. The mass took place in a small church without any air conditioning in Maui in July. So there was some sweat across the board. And then the reception was in my mother in law's backyard, which we spent the whole week prior decorating.
So it was really beautiful.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Yes. So your wife's name is Jules and is she originally from Hawaii or.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: She grew up in Southern California, but Maui was always a second home and now it's the primary home because her mom and sister moved there while she was in college with me.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Very good. So while you were in focus, you actually mission not far from your home of Brooklyn. You were right there in Columbia University, so you were nearby in Manhattan.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: I was actually closer to my parents than our students because it was a 25 minute ride on the D train down to Barclays center from grand street and it was 45 minutes up the west side to get to Columbia. So it was a funny situation. I don't think many missionaries can say they were closer to their parents, they.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Were living closer to their parents than to the students, to the campus, because you, you were combined with the new NYU house.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: We lived with them, yeah, all together.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: Wow, that's fascinating. That really is good. So tell me about your work with Focus. You know, you tell me what brought you there. That Great Commission. How has that been for you?
[00:08:24] Speaker B: It's been wonderful. Very rewarding. I think first and foremost, I have been formed as a man and a disciple, more in focus than just about anywhere else. And I think Focus is a unique place to grow because there's a lot of feedback that you get of ways you can grow. But it's not delivered as an accusation. It's delivered as loving, fraternal correction. And it's delivered by people who want to see you grow, care about you. So that's been by far, I think, the most unique aspect of working for Focus, aside from just the fact that my job is to introduce souls to Jesus and there's no greater privilege than that. I feel very under qualified.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: That's probably the situation anywhere you would go, any college. But I'm thinking, you know, Columbia, I'm thinking nyu, thinking Manhattan, for a lot of reasons that can be challenging. Certainly there are all the cultural reasons that are out there in the world, but, you know, these are places that are somewhat spread out too. Right. It's not like your traditional campus where you're kind of boxed in to a campus.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. Yeah. Columbia, NYU is much more spread out, certainly. But Columbia, yeah, it's right in the middle of Morningside Heights. You see just as many New Yorkers walking down the street as you do students. It's a beautiful chaos. I mean, New York City in general is a beautiful chaos, but Columbia is especially. I think there's an energy to it that's unlike any place I've ever been because there's the hospital right there on the campus and then there's that main quad from 114th street upwards. And you never really feel like you're out of the city. It's New York through and through the whole time, which was, of course, a breath of fresh air after spending four years in Rhode island at my alma mater. Loves getting back into the city, but especially, you'll remember the riots.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: Last year was a very tough year at Columbia. Columbia was one of the real centers. What was that experience like for you? It was being in the Middle of the faith world, right? Kind of literally in the middle. Yeah.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: No, yeah, yeah, there was. I think I was especially prepared for it growing up in New York City, riding the subways from my childhood. But we would show up to campus on a Tuesday morning and there were school buses from which 70 riot gear laden police officers had just walked out of. And the quad was completely locked down. You could not get in there without an id, so we couldn't do any outreach on the campus. And then you would hear the. The massive squadrons of protesters and then the counter protesters contesting them. It was a tense environment. There was a lot going on and our students felt a little bit off kilter those last few weeks of the spring semester.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Well, there must have been a real sense of loss because you couldn't carry on. And then pressure. I mean, the end of the semester is filled with enough pressure. Just get dealing with finals and papers and, you know, the practical things. When you can't get to the library to do your papers.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: There's got to be a lot of stress on individuals. And then I feel very strongly, Cardinal Dolan and I wrote a joint statement about anti Semitism in our city and about human dignity. There are young people who really suffered terribly through all of that.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, it was crazy that. I remember a lot of the Jewish students didn't feel safe. I think with good reason, frankly, with what was going on there. And you make a great point about the libraries. Actually, that was one silver lining for our Catholic center was that our students knew they could come and study there and not be disturbed. So we actually had a lot of students studying in the. In the library of the Catholic center in those last few weeks. But of course, that was overshadowed by the fact that they were there because they couldn't get into most of the academic building. So, yeah, it was. You're right, there was a shadow.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: But again, I often talk about the way that Jesus came into the messiness of your life. And in a sense, that's what you were doing as focus missionaries. Absolutely. Walking in the messiness of human life. And yeah, it's a shadow side, but that's where God is. God goes to seek us out in the shadows.
Very impressive. Meanwhile, you were married over the summer.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: And I remember last year when I was meeting you in seek, you and Jules hadn't seen each other for a while.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: That is right.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Because you were in different places. And I remember you picked me up at the airport and you said, I am so looking forward to the conference. I Said, yeah, sounds like a good thing. He said, no, you don't understand.
He said, no, no, no. I haven't seen my fiance in however many months.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Four and a half.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Four and a half months. You were really looking forward to seeing each other, and that's just great. That's wonderful.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: So tell me, you spoke a little bit about the formation that you experienced as a Focus Missionary in preparation into it all the accountability that's built in. How has that affected you now you're a husband? You know, I often talk about how the church needs holy vocations and one of the fruits of our campus ministry in general. But a Focus missionaries is the living out of holy vocations. Tell me about your formation and its connection to your role as a husband.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Great question. In my freshman year at Brown, I arrived very raw, I would say, in the sense that I had very much put God on the back burner and invented my own rule books on everything. It was my relationship with Focus Missionaries, specifically one who was at Brown my first two years, named Nick Colon, who's now in the seminary in Boston.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: I know Nick.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Yes, right. From Stony Brook. Yes, yes. He and I would say the chaplain at Brown at the time, Father Albert Dugan. They introduced me to faith in a way I had never been introduced before, and it completely changed my life. That started the arc of formation that I've received from Focus.
And it was one of the reasons I was ready to say yes to being a missionary is I had received so much, and I was so grateful for that. I wanted to be able to give back. I think it started with just knowing who Jesus is. And of course, from there, he takes over and shows you everything else. But I see the fruits of everything I've received from FOCUS every day in marriage. I'll give you an example in Focus. When we invite a student to enter into what we call commissioned discipleship, we're essentially inviting them to become a leader in the Catholic community on their campus. Start leading a Bible study, start leading other people in small group formation. We call it the High Call. There's a component of the High Call where we talk about St. Ignatius meditation on the two standards, Christ's army and Satan's army, fighting for human souls. And in sharing that with the students, as it was shared with me when I was a student, the idea is you're inviting them to lay down their life for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. So I got those muscles of making a gift of myself and sacrificing and laying down my life for Others focus.
Got those muscles moving when I was still an undergrad. And now, of course, that's the whole substance of marriage is laying down my life for my wife. So I see that arc very clearly. You know, focus has not just given me focus, jargon that has helped me, you know, thrive in this organization in particular. They've really taught me how to be a man for God and a man for others.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: And you're right, that's exactly what marriage is all about, you know, so I'm thrilled to see you living it out so powerfully. And of course, you have my prayers and my support. I'm glad you're local, at least for now. I don't know, I don't know what your long term future holds, but I'm glad you're local for now. You gave me some good news this focus.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. Jules is pregnant and we are expecting in April. Mid April.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Wonderful.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Yeah, that's wonderful. Our first daughter.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: That's great. A daughter, you know, that's great. It's a real blessing. Beginning of a family. And I thank you for your witness and we count on your ongoing prayers and you're living that witness out and you know that you can count on mine.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you so much. Richard Brennan.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Thank you for sharing with me. Thank you for being here and thanks for all the work that you've done for this conference.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Conference, of course.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: It's been a good experience and our young people.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Have really enjoyed. They themselves are experiencing some great fruits being here. And thank you for joining us this week for big city Catholics. Please join us again next week and let's ask for God's blessing.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: The Lord be with you with your spirit.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you, come, kindness, and grant you his peace. May the blessing of almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever and ever. Amen.
