PANORAMA CITY >> The San Fernando Valley’s highest priest fingered a large pectoral silver cross beneath his collar Friday, perhaps to quell a case of swarming butterflies.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph V. Brennan could run the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the biggest in the nation. Could lead the San Fernando Pastoral Region, the largest in Los Angeles. Could even command a basketball court and a wicked slider across home plate at Dodger Stadium.
Now the 6-foot-2, 62-year-old episcopal vicar was about to stride before an assembly of 1,200 cheering St. Genevieve Parish Schools students at the close of National Catholic Schools Week. And sing.
“When I sing sacred music, I’m in a sacred mode, and the nerves go away,” Brennan, dressed in a black suit over a black wool sweater, said. “But any secular or Broadway tune, I’m nervous.”
It had been 14 months since the Van Nuys native who had served as chief operating officer for the sprawling archdiocese had returned to the Valley to be installed as its pastoral bishop.
• RELATED STORY: Dodger Stadium hosts first Catholic Night, where Valley bishop throws first pitch
Since then, his parishioners say, Brennan has brought a youth-like energy to a pastoral region of 55 parishes and schools containing 1.5 million Catholics across the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.
From his office next to the historic Mission San Fernando Rey de España, the man who came to be called “Bishop Joe” had delved into “the whole issue of life – from conception to natural death,” he said, or from issues of abortion to assisted suicide to immigration.
He had also ventured down to Dodger Stadium to throw the first of two ceremonial pitches for its first-ever Catholic Night.
Then word got out that the cleric who could pack a powerful homily was also a noted warbler.
One of nine kids from a musical family, he once sang songs from the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” and “99 Bottles of Beer” while seated around summer campfires in the High Sierra. He was later recruited to sing solos while at St. John’s Seminary.
And his tenor voice was often heard soaring across parish sanctuaries.
“I used to be a first tenor,” Brennan said. “But voices change as you age. So my register has lowered. It’s broader. It certainly does have more gravitas.”
• RELATED STORY: LA Archdiocese installs new Auxiliary Bishop, Joseph Brennan
So it was no surprise when he was asked to help celebrate National Catholic Schools Week 2017 at St. Genevieve’s Elementary and High School, a performing arts powerhouse in Panorama City that has hosted the likes of President Jimmy Carter, Helen Reddy and Chuck D.
The school is now on its final stages of raising funds to build a $26 million performing arts and parish center.
“He’s one of the best things that has happened to our school and community in 18 years,” said Daniel Horn, principal of St. Genevieve for nearly two decades. “He just offers tremendous care and support. We all feel it … the kids light up for him.”
“I am very excited,” said Kailyn Canoza, 10, a fifth-grade cheerleader from Van Nuys. “He’s really a good bishop. Very wise. Very nice. He’s very encouraging.”
It was to a thundering ovation that the Most Reverend Brennan stood up in the Valiants’ gym. He doffed his cleric suit and pulled over a St. Gen’s T-shirt. And he prepared to croon as the school jazz band cranked up “Fly Me to the Moon.”
His left hand swung. His fingers snapped. He cradled the mic and leaned in to the tune like Frank Sinatra.
Only instead of saying “Baby, kiss me!” before the juvenile crowd, he slid up into a suggestive “Please go with me.”
He then segued into a lilting “The Prayer,” sung in English and Italian, the clear notes seeming to swirl like swallows throughout the lofty gym.
“The intent and joy of these children, high school and little guys. The intense passion for the faith,” he said of appearing at St. Genevieve’s. “And music.
“It’s unforgettable.”
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