Since 1865, Gilroy’s St. Mary Roman Catholic Church has had an important role in the life of the South Valley through its parochial school and numerous other ministries. With the retirement in December of longtime pastor and community icon Father Dan Derry, a new pastor was appointed to lead the huge parish (with 4,000 registered members and eight Masses each weekend). Due to his background and talents, The Rev. Robert Brocato seems well-suited for this challenging position.
Brocato was raised in a Catholic family in San Diego, receiving all his elementary and secondary education in Catholic schools. Upon graduation, however, he passed up college to move to Northern Virginia and followed a 12-year career in construction. The first two of these were spent as a carpenter building the underground Metro system in Washington, D.C.
He describes himself as “spiritually missing in action” during this time, and he began noticing something – a sense of fulfillment – was absent in his life. This caused him to begin an effort to rediscover his Catholic faith through the reading of a variety of Christian authors.
In 1986, Brocato entered the Carmelite Novitiate in the east foothills of San Jose. He commuted to St. Joseph’s Seminary in Los Altos, graduating with a degree in philosophy around the time the seminary was destroyed in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
He subsequently transferred to the Diocese of San Jose and continued his studies toward ordination to the priesthood at the St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park.
Ordained as a transitional deacon and then priest in 1995, Father Robert served as parochial vicar at Sacred Heart Church in the heavily-Hispanic Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose. He says he “enjoyed being immersed in the Latino culture there.”
During this time he was able to spend six months in Mexico, attending an intensive Spanish language program while celebrating Mass on weekends at a local parish near Cuernavaca.
Returning to California in 2001, he was assigned to St. Mary in Gilroy for 18 months where Father Dan mentored him. Father Robert has fond memories of the many friendships with parishioners he developed at that time.
A seven-year tenure at San Jose’s Christ the King Church was followed by a chance to serve in Jamaica because of a unique arrangement with the Diocese of Montego Bay. He was the second priest from San Jose to help alleviate the shortage of priests being experienced by that Caribbean island.
Upon his return in June 2012, Father Brocato spent a six-month Sabbatical studying Vietnamese in San Diego while assisting at a local parish.
Father Robert is delighted to be back in Gilroy. Rather than arriving with an agenda for change, he has instead engaged in visiting with a wide range of parishioners and asking them, “What should I know?” Eventually this should lead to a consensus about “the most important needs and ministries of this parish, the areas where we should be concentrating our energies.”
A longtime parishioner, too shy to allow use of her name, echoes many when she “welcomes back Father Robert Brocato, who served as Parochial Vicar years ago. His easygoing style with parishioners, students and staff, along with his fluency in Spanish, endear him to all. Fr. Robert will soon take his place in a long line of beloved pastors of this large, diverse flock.”
