‘He’ll make a great priest’

PATERSON  When Bishop Sweeney was growing up, his family considered prayer time sacred at their home in the Whitestone section of Queens. If kids from the neighborhood came to the door to play with the Sweeney children before they were finished praying the rosary — usually after dinner, they either were asked to wait in the foyer or accepted an invitation to pray a decade or two with them.

On July 1, family members sat proudly in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist here to watch one their own, Kevin J. Sweeney, be ordained and installed as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Paterson.

Prior to that important moment in their family’s history (and the Diocese’s), some of them shared with The Beacon memories of him, such as prayer time, as they thought back to the “old days” in Queens.

During a reception in the cathedral’s Rodimer Center before the Mass, Marie Shanahan, his older sister; Brendan Sweeney, his younger brother; and Nora Blewitt, an aunt, spoke about the Bishop’s generous spirit and early influences and passions that brought him to this moment as the new Shepherd of Paterson — a joyful event for all of them. They talked about his interest in the faith that their late parents, James and Agnes, instilled in them; his passion for sports and intense competitive nature; and his love of his Irish heritage, also instilled by his Irish-immigrant parents.

“Today I’m so happy for my older brother, Kevin. I think about how proud our parents would have been,” said Brendan, an attorney who lives with his family in Floral Park, N.Y. Days before the official announcement on April 15, Bishop Sweeney told Marie, 51, and Brendan, 49, the news that Pope Francis appointed him as Bishop of Paterson. “I was surprised. Kevin is a humble guy and has been a wonderful priest. It’s an opportunity for him to serve people — his favorite thing to do. He had great teachers and mentors growing up, which has a lot to do with where he is now,” he said.

The Sweeney family had faithfully attended Mass and other religious activities at St. Luke Church in Whitestone, Queens. Bishop Sweeney was a “dedicated altar boy and was interested in his religious life, praying and reading Scripture,” said Brendan, who attended the ordination/installation with wife, Tara, and sons, Ben and Colin.

Marie Shanahan recalled Bishop Sweeney as “generous, kind and easy to get along with” as a kid — traits that he has carried into his 23 years as a priest of the Brooklyn Diocese. Also of Floral Park, she attended the Mass with husband, Kevin and children Kaitlin, Brendan and Kiera. Family members Nora Blewitt, Kaitlin Shanahan, Marie Shanahan, Ben Sweeney and Brendan Sweeney presented the Offertory Gifts to Bishop Sweeney at the liturgy.

“Our mother told a story about a man in our neighborhood who was having a heart attack outside. Kevin was 13 years old and took care of him [until emergency personnel arrived]. Mom said that he demonstrated it [a sense of compassion needed to become a good priest] back then,” Marie Shanahan, an elementary school teacher, said.

Nora Blewitt, Bishop Sweeney’s aunt on his mother’s side and a Tenafly resident, said, “I’m not surprised that Kevin became a priest. He was a good boy — very gentle. When Bishop Sweeney was baptized at St. Luke’s, his mother asked his godmother to pray that he would become a priest.” The new bishop comes from a legacy of religious service in his family —three aunts, one on his father’s side and two on his mother’s side, became religious sisters, she said.

“When Kevin called me [to tell her his appointment as bishop], he asked me, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I was so happy. Now he can be closer to me. Our family back in County Mayo in Ireland is also excited,” she said.

As a teenager, “Kevin was cheerful,” said Msgr. Richard Marchese, a faculty member at Cathedral Prep High School in Elmhurst, Queens when Bishop Sweeney was a student there from 1984 to 1988. At the start of the Mass, the monsignor officially introduced Bishop Sweeney to Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of the Newark Arch­diocese and principal consecrator.

“Kevin was very devout. At St. Luke’s, he was known as a pious person but not in an annoying way. He is very devoted to people. I’m not surprised that he became at priest — or was named a bishop,” Msgr. Marchese said.

At Cathedral Prep, Bishop Sweeney rose to become a star on the high school seminary’s baseball team, excelling as an infielder, outfielder and pitcher. For his prowess on the diamond there, he was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at his alma mater in 2013.

“As a kid, Kevin was obsessed with sports. We lived on a small block and a dead-end street and played outside. There was always some game going, such as stickball, kickball or hockey,” Brendan said.

In his remarks at the end of his ordination and installation Mass on July 1, Bishop Sweeney remembered Msgr. Marchese’s compassion when as a student, he feared that his poor grades would keep him off the baseball diamond his freshman year.

“Monsignor told my mother, ‘Why don’t we give him another chance?’ He saved my baseball career,” said Bishop Sweeney, whose grades did improve.

Bishop Sweeney is a lifelong New York Yankees fan but also worked for nine seasons in the concession stands of Shea Stadium for the New York Mets. He dreamed of making it into professional baseball but it was not to be. Instead, he pursued the priesthood in Brooklyn, being ordained in 1997. Today he mainly plays golf.

“Kevin will be happy in Paterson. He only has to go over the Cross Bronx Expressway to get to Yankee Stadium,” Msgr. Marchese told The Beacon.

Along with faith, Bishop Sweeney’s parents — Agnes who died in 2018 and James who died in 1998 — instilled their children with their Irish heritage. They emigrated from County Mayo to the United States as young adults. The bishop honors their memory as the Chaplain of the Mayo Society of New York. Their mother served as president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. During the Mass, a cantor paid tribute to his Irish heritage by singing the hymn “Our Lady of Knock.”

“After Mass on Sunday, my parents played Irish music at home. All of us siblings have visited our cousins in Ireland but Kevin has gone there the most, including for many weddings,” Brendan said.

In his remarks at the Mass, Bishop Sweeney also paid heartfelt — and sometimes tearful — tribute to his family: his parents for “raising me in the faith”; Aunt Nora for being “an example of faith for your family”; and his siblings “for being there for me in my priesthood. Now I’m going to need you more than ever!” he told them.