Fr. James Brichetto, S.J. "Rest In Peace"

Former Priest Who Served As Chaplin For The Cincinnati Fire Dept. Passes Away
Contributor: Ian Preuth
A Jesuit Priest who served as Chaplin at the Cincinnati Fire Department for more than 20 years has died. Reverend James Brichetto died Saturday in Clarkston, Michigan. Father Brichetto also served as pastor of Saint Xavier Church and as athletic director and teacher at Saint Xavier High School. His funeral mass is Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Xavier Church Downtown.

Link to original article (here)

.

Jesuit Obituary

Fr. James N. Brichetto, SJ

November 17, 2007

Clarkston, Michigan View

Fr. Brichetto's guest book at Legacy.com
Father James Brichetto, a Jesuit priest with “the common touch,” died Saturday, Nov. 17, at the age of 76. Whether talking with truck drivers over breakfast or chatting with firemen at the firehouse, Fr. Brichetto had a “rough-and-ready” reputation. “His idea of church was being out and about with the people,” said nephew Mike Davis. “He brought many people to the faith, and also brought many people back to the faith.” During his 18-year ministry as associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Cincinnati, he simultaneously became chaplain to the Cincinnati Fire Department, helping those in crisis. Davis remembered: “It was nothing for him to be called out at 3 or 4 in the morning to be there for people in their moment of need.”

Perhaps the greatest hour of need came in 1977 at the infamous Beverly Hills
Supper Club Fire in Southgate, KY. Fr. Brichetto helped anoint many of the 165
victims killed that evening and comforted those who survived the tragedy. Fire
code violations contributed to the carnage as 2,400 people tried to escape a
fire that may have started in aluminum wiring

. Fr. Brichetto was a native of Cincinnati, where he attended St. Francis Xavier grade school and high school, graduating in 1949. That same year he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Milford, OH. During his training to become a Jesuit, he earned an A.B. in Latin and an M.A. in sociology from Loyola University Chicago. He also studied philosophy and theology at West Baden, IN, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1963. Fr. Brichetto started out as a teacher and coach at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, IL, from 1956 to 1959, while still training to be a Jesuit priest. After ordination, he returned to Chicago as an assistant pastor at Holy Family Catholic Church from 1964 to 1966, where he led the youth and men’s club. He then went back to his hometown to teach at his alma mater, St. Xavier High School, until 1970, and led athletics there. In 1970, he became associate pastor of St. Xavier Church, where he served until 1988, conducting an active ministry to senior citizens, ranging from Bingo to bus trips to European tours. For the next 12 years, he was administrator, pastor, and associate pastor for several parishes in need. From 1988-93 he worked for two Ohio parishes: St. Michael in New Vienna and St. Benignus in Greenfield. Fr. Brichetto served as pastor at St. Joan of Arc in Indianapolis, IN, until 1995. Though his time there was short, parishioner

Carl Henn remembered him well: “He gave vigorous homilies with rigorous
theology. We gained an appreciation for the Jesuit order because of Fr.
Brichetto.”

Two Cincinnati parishes followed. Fr. Brichetto served at St. Antoninus until 1997 and then at St. Louis until 2000. “He simply went where the Lord called him,” Davis commented. It was with reluctance, however, that he followed the call to retirement at Colombiere Jesuit Community in Clarkston, MI, in 2001. That is where he spent his final years and days, always eager to “help out,” always hoping to return to work. Fr. Brichetto is survived by his sister, Sylvia Davis, and ten nieces and nephews. He will lie in state at St. Xavier Church, 607 Sycamore St., Tuesday, from 5:30 p.m. until Mass of Christian Burial at 7:30 p.m.In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Jesuit Partnership or the Jesuit International Missions, 607 Sycamore St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 or The Little Sisters of the Poor, 476 Riddle Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45220.

Link to original piece (here)