Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, the priests and faithful of the
diocese gathered to pray for the soul of Father Cornelius O’Brien during a
memorial Mass at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington Sept. 27. Father
James R. Gould, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Warrenton, served
as homilist.
Father O’Brien, former pastor of St. James Church
in Falls Church, died in Ireland Sept. 7 at age 87. Father O’Brien’s funeral
Mass was offered at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Kealkill, County
Cork Sept. 10. He was interred at Kilmacomogue Cemetery in Bantry.
Father Gould described Father O’Brien as a model for priests
who followed in the footsteps of three heroes of the faith — Peter, Paul and
Mary. Like Paul, Father O’Brien was an evangelist and like Mary, he was receptive
to whatever the Lord had planned for his life. Like Peter, he was a man of
faith with a love for Christ. “(Father O’Brien would say,) You need to know
Peter. You need to know what it is to lead but also fail. You need to know what
it is to be restored,” he said.
Father Gould said that now that the ministry of Father O’Brien
has ended, he hopes other young men will fill his shoes in “the greatest
fraternity the world has ever known.” In his remarks following Mass, Bishop Burbidge
echoed that call.
“We do honor Father O’Brien here with a renewed commitment
to pray for all our priests and our seminarians and, as Father Gould said, to
pray that more young men in this diocese would pray and respond to God’s call
to serve him and his church as a priest,” he said. “How blessed we were today
to gather as God’s holy family as we commend Father O’Brien to God’s infinite
love and divine mercy.”
Maggie Ciskanik and her brother, Frank O’Reilly, both parishioners
of St. John the Baptist Church in Front Royal, served as readers for the Mass. Their
father, Dr. Sean O’Reilly, and Father Brien were fellow Irishmen and good friends
who supported Christendom College in Front Royal, where Father O’Brien was the
school’s first chaplain.
Related story:Fr. Cornelius O’Brien dies at 87
Ciskanik remembers Father O’Brien coming over almost every Sunday
for dinner at their house and serving as her confessor since she was 14-years-old.
She saw him for the last time in January during a trip to Ireland.
“There are two men in life who taught me to love truth,” she
said. “One was my father and the second was Father O’Brien. (Truth) first in
the person of Jesus and then in everything else.”
Father O’Brien was born Jan. 16, 1932, in Goulanes, Bantry,
County Cork, Ireland. He attended St. Patrick Seminary in Carlow, Ireland, and
was ordained by Bishop Thomas Keogh June 5, 1955. He was a priest in the
Diocese of Alexandria, La., before being invited by Bishop Thomas J. Welsh in
1975 to the Diocese of Arlington.
He served as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of St. Thomas
More in Arlington (1975-79), assistant director of the Notre Dame Institute
(1976-1979), parochial vicar at St. Agnes Church in Arlington (1979-80),
associate pastor of St. Lawrence Church in Alexandria (1980-83), pastor of St.
Timothy Church in Chantilly (1983-99), and pastor of St. James (1999-2006).
Following his retirement, he returned to his home in Cork County, Ireland.
