St. Gerard’s welcomes visiting priest back to his hometown

By Mary Ann Price

Growing up in Canton, the Very Reverend Bryan K. Parrish attended weekly Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church and did not go into St. Gerard Majella Church until he was a seminarian. But he is making up for lost time by saying weekly Mass as a visiting priest at St. Gerard’s this summer.

Reverend Bryan K. Parrish

Father Parrish, 47, moved from Stoughton to Canton when he was 3 years old with his parents, Stan and Mary, and his older brother, Mark. His two younger sisters are JoAnn and Jill. He attended the Luce School and was a member of the first class at the new Galvin Middle School.

“I remember pedaling my bike with my friends to look in the windows of our new school,” Father Parrish recalled.

He attended Xaverian Brothers High School, where his brother was already a student — a decision that his parents encouraged.

“I certainly came from a Catholic family,” he said. “It was part of our lives — a comfortable part of my life — and of a lot of my friends, also. My parents really encouraged me to go to Xaverian. It’s a good example of good parental guidance.”

In high school, Father Parrish spent time with friends, planned to study engineering in college, and worked at the family business, Crescent Ridge Dairy. He likes all the ice cream flavors, but said his favorite is pistachio.

By the time he was a senior at Xaverian, he was waiting to hear back from five colleges and dating a girl when he decided to study at St. John’s seminary. He described his decision as something that crystallized for him following three experiences.

First, his sister Jill was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was in eighth grade and he was a sophomore at Xaverian. She died of the disease in 1992. “She lived a very joyful and happy life,” he said of his younger sister. “Through her courageous struggle with cancer, I was drawn closer to God.”

His second influence was the work of the priests, chaplains and Xaverian Brothers at his high school. “I got to see men dedicated to God on a more human level,” said Father Parrish, who is now a member of the school’s board of trustees.

The third experience was the visit of the late Pope John Paul II to Boston in the fall of 1979. The words the Pope spoke during his homily resonated with the teenager: “Whatever you make of your life, let it reflect the love of Jesus Christ.”

Father Parrish said many of his classmates ended up leaving the seminary during his four years there, but he knew he had made the right decision. “I felt very comfortable in the seminary,” he said. “It seemed like a good fit. I was where God wanted me to be.”

Following his ordination in 1988, he served at St. Mary’s in West Quincy until 1994, when he was assigned to St. Paul’s in Wellesley. In 2000, he was named pastor of St. Mary’s in Plymouth, and in 2007 he became pastor of Holy Family in Duxbury.

Earlier this year, he assumed the roles of assistant vicar for administration and special assistant to the vicar general. He describes himself as the right-hand man to Father Richard Erikson, who is the right-hand man to Cardinal Sean O’Malley. His office is located in the Boston Archdiocese Pastoral Center in Braintree.

There is a framed photo of each church in the archdiocese on the walls of the center. The one just outside Father Parrish’s office is of St. John’s in Canton. The photos in his office include one of his six nieces and nephews, one of him and his parents on a vacation to Charleston, South Carolina, and one autographed by Bobby Orr after he scored a winning goal in a hockey game Father Parrish saw at the age of 7 with his father.

Now he is a visiting priest for the first time, and Father Parrish said the St. Gerard’s parish has been very welcoming. “I’ve seen a lot of folks I knew growing up and friends of my parents,” he said. “I feel very comfortable there.”

Last year, he ran in the Falmouth Road Race as a fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund in memory of his sister Jill and raised over $8,000. He is running again on August 15. Those who would like to contribute can do so by visiting www.rundanafarber.org/falmouth. Click “support a runner” and enter Bryan Parrish.

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