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MEET OUR PASTOR
Father Jim Brown
Fr. Brown was born and raised in Sacred Heart Parish on the East Side. He is the oldest of five siblings, three sisters and a younger brother. One sister, Kathy, and his brother Charles live in Toledo and the other sisters, Barbara and Margie, live out West in the Las Vegas area.
Fr. Brown attended Central Catholic High School, Class of 1964. From there he went to Seminary College at St. Mary, Kentucky. At that time St. Mary was the oldest Catholic Men's College west of the Allegheny Mountains. It had both high school and college students from all over the United States. St. Mary's at one time was a Jesuit Men's college, but as a seminary it was under the auspices of the Congregation of the Resurrection Fathers from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It was closed as a seminary in 1975. It is now a minimum security prison for Marion County, Kentucky.
From College Seminary he went to Mount St. Mary Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio and was ordained for the Diocese of Toledo on May 27, 1972. Fr. Jeff Nordhaus was his classmate. May he rest in peace.
Before ordination to priesthood he was able to spend almost nine months in Tiffin St. Mary Parish as a deacon. He was the first ever assigned there, and of the many that followed him he is the only one who is still active in the priesthood. His first assignment as a priest was to Immaculate Conception Parish in Bellevue, Ohio. Fr. Bob Lamentia was his pastor and mentor. Fr. Brown heard many stories and memories of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish and Fr. Lamentia's relationship with Fr. Ben Crane.
Following Bellevue, Fr. Brown was assigned to St. Joesph Parish in Sylvania with Fr. George Schmidt. He was with Fr. Schmidt for three years and with Bishop Hoffman for one year before being assigned to his first pastorate in two county parishes, St. Louis, Custar and Immaculate Conception in Deshler, Ohio. Six years 'down on the farm' was a grand time and a good learning experience. From there he went back to East Toledo to Holy Rosary Parish. He spent ten years there and although it was a more difficult assignment with a larger school and a changing neighborhood to deal with it has a special place in his heart and memories.
To his surprise he was assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Marblehead, Ohio on Lake Erie and enjoyed his time there for twelve years. Finally it was time to go back to work and he came back to Toledo to Our Lady of Lourdes. His plan was to retire from Our Lady of Lourdes in twelve or fiften years. He has come to learn that the statement, "When we plan...God laughs!" is very true.
Fr. Brown was able to celebrate his twenty fifth anniversary in Marblehead. Next year will be his fortieth and he'll be able to celebrate here at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Some of the extra curricular activities that Fr. Brown is involved with are the Cursillo Movement as one of the Diocesan Spiritual Advisors and the Knights of Columbus. He was most recently the State Chaplain for the Knights of Columbus in Ohio and is the chaplain of St. Jude / South Toledo Council, that includes OLPH Parish. He also belongs to Teams of Our Lady, a marriage support group as their chaplain. He is part of Team 7 and they meet once a month usually on A Saturday night.
Father Brown loves being a priest and finds that his life has been and is being blessed all the time. He knows everyone at OLPH will be a blessing for him and he hopes that he will be a blessing for OLPH as well.
Fr. Brown welcomes the
opportunity to serve OLPH as our 11th pastor.
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