WESTON -- Father Brian Delaney is already used to being called "Father Brian."

His coworkers gave him that nickname when he worked as a security manager at Raytheon.

"I guess I reminded them of being a priest," said Father Delaney, 63, a fourth-year seminarian at Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston and transitional deacon at St. Veronica Parish in Burlington. His ordination to the priesthood is May 17.

He said the reality of actually becoming "Father Brian" hasn't sunk in yet, but he suspects it will on the day of his ordination.

"I always had something in me that wanted to baptize," he said. "I wanted to baptize. I wanted to be able to say Mass, and I just want to be there for people. And I know there are so many people hurting today, and there are so many people that are wanting to seek their faith, and we need a lot of good priests today to make that happen."

Father Delaney felt a strong draw to the church since his early childhood in Lowell. He, his parents, and his two older sisters did not attend Mass every Sunday, but as a child, he would stare intently at crucifixes. They "intrigued" him, but he didn't understand why.

"I always had something for Jesus," he said.

He described his young self as "your normal, average, round-about-the-neighborhood kid," playing baseball, kickball, street hockey, and other outdoor games "back in the days when kids were kids." He remembered Lowell as "a melting pot."

"All different types of people, all different cultures," he said. "And you know, that was back in the day when it seemed like we all got along with one another, we all played with one another. There were no differences."

He attended first through third grade at St. Michael School in Lowell, and was inspired by the sisters who taught him, especially Sister Mary Evangeline.

"She was a wonderful person, a very, very holy person," he said. "I think that helped set me off maybe in the right direction."

As a child, he dreamed of being a dentist or a pilot. Neither of those dreams came true, though he has flown private planes on occasion. He doesn't think his younger self would be surprised to know that he became a priest.

"It wasn't until later in life that I figured it out," he said.

He attended high school at Austin Prep in Reading, where he admittedly "wasn't the best student." He was a fast runner and was sought out by the track team, but he didn't have time for sports or extracurricular activities. After school, he worked as head cashier at Market Basket, then known as DeMoulas. From there, he got a job at the Astro Circuits Corporation, where he soon became a manager.

"I guess I was business inclined," he said. "I had that business go-to."

From 1981 to 1984, Father Delaney served in the Navy as a cryptologic technician. He was responsible for giving global intelligence briefings to ships docked at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida.

The same year, he joined the Navy, he married his wife, Nancy, whom he met at Astro Circuits. They had one daughter, Erin.

"She was a very warm and loving individual," Father Delaney said about Nancy. "It was just one of those things that, you know, they say love at first sight. It's just something about an individual, and you just kind of lock onto them."

When he left the Navy, Father Delaney was still in his 20s. "Something at that point in time just clicked" with his faith. Nancy encouraged him to start attending Mass again, and the Delaneys became active parishioners at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Lowell for the next 30 years. Father Delaney started to volunteer at the church.

There, he saw how "blessed" the priests were due to the work they did.

"The more I found myself helping out, the more I wanted to do," he said. "It was kind of funny. The more I felt at home, being in the church."

He got a job at the Analytic Sciences Corporation before joining Raytheon, where his coworkers saw "Christlike qualities" in him. Bringing his faith to his job was Father Delaney's way of improving teamwork.

"Treating people with the utmost respect and dignity," he said, "being open, being fair, being honest. Just trying to be Christ, even for the people that you are working with. The corporate world, you've got people that are very nice to work with, and you get some people that are very hard to work with."

When the clergy abuse scandal rocked the archdiocese in the 2000s, he was on the St. Margaret Parish Council. The scandal didn't shake his faith but strengthened it.

"A lot of people were obviously shaken up, and probably rightfully so," he said, adding: "It was all the more reason for us to say 'No, we need to stay together as a faith.'"

He said that the church has endured scandals for thousands of years, "but here we are."

"People are human," he said. "Humans make mistakes. The Holy Spirit is here to protect the church, and the church is still going on."

In 2017, Nancy died of kidney failure at age 57.

"It was very emotional," Father Delaney said. "It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever gone through."

It was his faith, and the support of his pastor, Father Ray Benoit, that consoled him.

"He was just a wonderful, wonderful person who helped me get through a lot of things," Father Delaney said.

After Nancy's death, he moved to Merrimac and became a member of the Holy Family (now St. Andre Bessette) Parish Council in Amesbury. Father Delaney knew the pastor, Father Scott Euvrard, from his time in Lowell. One day, Father Euvrard asked Father Delaney if he had ever considered the priesthood or the diaconate. He said, deep down, he had always considered it.

"I could always sense something," Father Delaney said, "even while I had a family, and even while I was working at Raytheon."

He met with Deacon Chuck Hall, who served the parish, to discern becoming a permanent deacon. He then thought to himself, "Why stop there?" He continued to discuss it with Father Ron St. Pierre, who had replaced Father Euvrard as pastor. One night, Father Delaney was in his office, having just finished praying for God to give him a sign.

"You don't put God to the test," he said. "You're not supposed to ask him for a sign, right?"

Father Delaney turned on the TV and saw a priest named Father Delaney being featured on EWTN.

"Could you imagine that?" he said. "I just get done asking the good Lord for a sign, I turn around, and put that TV on and right there, boom, there it is. Talk about a slap upside the head."

His daughter Erin, now an adult, and his granddaughter Mackenzie weren't surprised by the news that Father Delaney wanted to become a priest. They supported him, even if it meant not getting to see him as often as they did before.

"They are 100 percent behind me in what I've been doing," he said.

He retired from Raytheon in December 2020 to study for the diaconate, which later became studying for the priesthood. He entered Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in August 2021. After his first year, he sold his condo in Merrimac and all of his possessions, and moved into the seminary full-time.

"It certainly strengthened my faith," he said. "It certainly increased my faith. It certainly increased my knowledge. And I knew at the end of my first year here, something was in me. I could just tell. I could just feel it. And I felt that, okay, yes, this is where I need to be. This is home."



This article originally appeared in the April 18 issue of The Pilot.



Father Brian Thomas Delaney

The oldest member of the 2025 Ordination Class for the archdiocese and the oldest of the three children of Carolyn and the late Brian Delaney, he was raised in Lowell and graduated from Austin Prep, Reading. He was granted a Bachelor of Science in business management from Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H., in 1992.

He was married for 36 years to his late wife, Nancy, who died in 2017. He is also the father of Erin of Salem.

An alumnus of Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, Weston, he has been a deacon at St. Veronica Parish, Burlington. He will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Joseph Church, Amesbury, on May 18 at 9:30 a.m.; he will also be the homilist of the Mass.