Local
New pastors for Beverly, Billerica, and Somerville

By Father Robert M. O'Grady
Posted: 7/30/2004

Archbishop Seán P. O’Malley has announced the first time appointments of pastors to three parishes in the archdiocese. Each has been serving as either a temporary administrator or administrator of the respective parishes.

Father David J. Barnes, a Boston native and a son of Sacred Heart Parish in Quincy will become the pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish on Aug 1. He has been serving the North Shore parish as Temporary Administrator since March. Prior to that he had served at St. Mary as parochial vicar coming there from St. Agnes, Arlington. His first assignment following ordination had been to St. Joseph Parish, Wakefield.

Father Barnes completed his formation for ordination at archdiocese seminaries and was ordained at Holy Cross Cathedral on May 17, 1997 by Cardinal Bernard Law. His first assignment as a pastor will be delightful challenge, the already large parish will increase territory and population on Aug. 29 with the suppression of neighboring St. Alphonsus Parish. The Beverly portion of that parish will become part of St. Mary. In addition to many activities, the parish also has a vibrant parish school with an active and supportive parents group.

St. Ann Parish Somerville will have a new pastor on Aug. 1, when Father David A. Keene moves from administrator to pastor of the same parish. A classmate of Father Barnes, Father Keene also completed priestly formation for ordination at our archdiocesan seminaries and was ordained in May 17, 1997. Born in Brockton he was raised in Hanson, a son of St. Joseph the Worker Parish.

His first assignment took him from one side of the archdiocese to the other. St. Monica Parish in Methuen is widely known as one of the busiest parishes in the archdiocese and this was Father Keene’s first priestly assignment. In July 2001 he was named parochial vicar of St. Ann, Somerville.

With the sudden death of the parish’s pastor, Father Gerald Fitzgerald in 2003, Father Keene was named administrator of the parish. The largely urban parish has seen a number of changes over the past several years. Neighboring St. Polycarp Parish was closed and the people and territory were rejoined to the mother parish, St. Ann. Just this past spring it was announced that because of declining enrollment the parish school would be closing its doors at the end of the last academic year. The parish, however, is still vibrant and with Father Keene’s leadership will be able to meet the challenges it faces.

A Haverhill native who attended St. John Prep., Danvers and St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Father Francis Sullivan will be the new pastor of St. Mary Parish Billerica effective Aug. 1. Father Sullivan completed his formation for ordination at Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Weston and was ordained for the archdiocese by Cardinal Law on June 25, 1988 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

His first assignment was as parochial vicar at St. Mary of the Annunciation Parish in Melrose, followed by an assignment as parochial vicar at St. Bonaventure Parish in the Manomet section of Plymouth. In 1996 he became temporary parochial vicar and subsequently parochial vicar at Sacred Hearts Parish, Malden.

In July 2002 he was named administrator of St. Mary Parish in Billerica and with his new appointment he becomes pastor of the Merrimack region parish.