Peter Paul Brennan, DD was something of a wonder to those who knew him or of him. His parents John Brennan and Mary Browne were from Kilkenny, Ireland and Peter lived his Irish heritage like a badge of honor. He was the youngest of nine children who grew up in the Bronx and spent his professional life as a teacher of English and administrator in the New York City school system while he and his wife Marie Kirby, both former religious, raised three children of their own. They enthusiastically embraced the call of Vatican II for reform and renewal and founded Christ House Ecumenical Center and the Ecumenical Catholic Diocese of America as expression of that Council and their own charisms. Along the way Peter became a “worker priest”, an early leader in the Federation of Christian Ministries and later CORPUS, ordained to both the priesthood through the Old Catholic movement and the episcopacy first through the African Orthodox Church and then conditionally by married Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo of Zambia with whom he co-founded the Married Priest Now! Catholic Prelature of Sts. Peter and Paul in 2006. He collaborated in the founding of the St. Barnabas Mission and its successor, The Good Shepherd Companions an Ecumenical Catholic Ordinariate, served as the President of Married Priests Now! worldwide and at the time of his passing served on the Executive Committee of the International Federation for a Renewed Catholic Ministry. We shall not see his likeness again. We have lost a great champion and friend. May he rest in eternal peace.

Rev. Bandi Shoury and his wife provided a non-residential orphanage service in India. .. The children are from two places/villages near Eluru. They stay with their parents and go to different schools around Eluru. They regularly supervised about them and their families wellbeing and their studies. Sometimes if they or their family members are sick they got them treated and after their high schooling if they want to go to colleges They helped them get admissions in our R.C.M institutes. Boys were encouraged to go to seminary also. Three of them he sent but one became a priest l for our neighbor Guntur diocese. Sometimes in case of natural calamities They help the families by distributing food stuffs (like rice) etc. They got them together twice in a year, at Christmas time to give to them new Christmas clothes and gifts and before the schools reopen around 13th June to celebrate St. Anthony feast and distribute Uniform clothes, school bags, lunch boxes, books and stationary. They have done this since April 1999 and have helped more than 100 children (from LKG to Xth class) Their daughters are interested to continue this good work of helping the poor kids later on also once they get some good jobs.

Bishop Virginia Lynch Graf tells her story:  “When Pope John XXIII opened the doors and windows of the Catholic Church to let in God's refreshing breath, many people across the world got caught up in its spirit.  At the time, I was a young religious sister filled with enthusiasm for teaching.  I was teaching Black Children in a segregated school and worked for a new integrated school.  I was convinced that education would be the great equalizer.  I was next assigned an inner city school for lower economic white children.  As principal I worked hard to improve the quality of the school and to introduce the neighborhood Lumbee Indians to Catholic education.  Eventually, I felt God's call encourage me to be good woman without the support of a religious community and so I left my congregation.  My new path gave me opportunity to support family members in their times of need, to continue my education, to marry, to parent, to broaden my life's experiences, and to continue growing in faith.  From early adult life I was told I should be a priest.  My reply was consistent, but naive. "Catholics don't ordain woman as priests."  Visiting the catacombs in Rome, demonstrated the invalidity of that statement.  Now I realize those early efforts to empower students were stepping stones.  My life's work is to empower all people to see the divine presence acting within them.  It's a call to serve as many people as I can in all the ways that I can.”   Bishop Virginia earned  a Doctor of Ministry degree from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore MD in 1984.