byFather Robert M. O'Grady Pilot Staff
Father Frank J. Silva Courtesy photo
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Priests do not usually like to tout their resumes, so sometimes it's left to others to do it for them. This is all the easier in the case of Father Frank J. Silva, who became a senior priest of the archdiocese on June 1, 2024 -- well almost.
The Lowell native was born in the Mill City on May 11, 1949. He is a son of the late Frank and Mary (Brady) Silva. They were the parents of his siblings, David, Robert, Annmarie Marchand, Sandra Noel, and the late James and Shirley Wickens. He also has three stepsisters: Charlotte Martinage, Ethel Rondeau, and Gail Lipomi.
He is a proud alumnus of St. Patrick Grammar School in the Spindle City, where he was taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur; and at Keith Academy, where the faculty were the Xaverian Brothers. He still has friends among both those congregations of his former teachers.
He was active in school and parish life, and a notable presence in activities of the then Catholic Youth Organization, aka CYO. Even in high school, he showed leadership among his peers and developed a relationship with the priests with whom he worked not only in Lowell but really across the archdiocese.
Following high school, he studied at Lowell Tech, now University of Massachusetts Lowell, for a year prior to entering the archdiocesan seminaries at Jamaica Plain's Cardinal O'Connell; and then to the Brighton seminary campus, first at St. Clement Hall and, for theology formation, at St. John Hall.
On May 3, 1975, Auxiliary Bishop John M. D'Arcy ordained him and his classmates as deacons at Immaculate Conception Church, Malden. He could not have known at the time that he would return there years later.
On May 15, 1976, Humberto Cardinal Medeiros ordained him to the priesthood at Holy Cross Cathedral; he celebrated his Mass of Thanksgiving back in Lowell at St. Anthony of Padua (Portuguese) Church.
His first assignment was as an associate at St. Mary Parish, Randolph. Even after almost half a decade, he recalls people and events at his first assignment with evident affection and happy memory.
Five years later, his life took a turn with the first of several, sometimes overlapping non-parish assignments in the archdiocese.
From 1981 to 1983, he was assistant director of vocations as well as a faculty member of St. John Seminary. In 1983, he was named vocation director while remaining in the seminary faculty. He greatly expanded the Vocation Office's presence and availability to parishes and schools.
He remained vocation director until 1989, while in 1986 he was also named director of the Permanent Diaconate Program of the archdiocese (1986-1994). In 1988, he was named administrator of St. Lawrence Parish, Brookline, serving there until August 1994.
He expanded the program and recruited more faculty for the academic and pastoral formation of new permanent deacons. His enthusiasm for the permanent diaconate helped place both the program and the deacons formed in it on a solid basis with expanded course work and pastoral preparation.
He served as the national president of Deacon Directors and was awarded its 1995 Reverend William L. Philibin Award for his outstanding service to the formation programs for deacons not in Boston but in other dioceses of our country.
He enjoyed a well-earned sabbatical from August to December 1994, and on returning to the archdiocese, on Dec. 13, 1994, Bernard Cardinal Law named him pastor at the parish in which church he had been ordained a deacon almost 20 years prior.
After a term in Malden all his subsequent assignments were to archdiocesan parishes: St. Ann, Wayland, pastor (2000-2006); Corpus Christi-St. Bernard, Newton (2006-2012); St. Margaret of Antioch, Burlington, pastor (2012-2019); and for a year (2018-2019), administrator of St. Malachy Parish, also in Burlington. In 2019, Cardinal O'Malley named him pastor of the collaborative parishes of Holy Family, Concord, and St. Irene, Carlisle. During the years 2018 through 2024, he was also the vicar forane or dean of the West Region Vicariate I. From 2013 through the present, he has also been an appointed member of the Clergy Personnel Board from the West Region.
Although granted senior priest/retirement status, he is not really retired as he has been appointed to the faculty of St. John Seminary, Brighton. He will be the coordinator of pastoral formation.
A long resume representing diverse service to parishes and archdiocesan offices and formation programs, and still serving.