Rev. Charles J. Brunick, C.S.P.

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Rev. Charles J. Brunick, C.S.P.

May 26, 1943 ~ February 26, 2024

Rev. Charles J. Brunick, C.S.P., entered eternal life on February 26, 2024, at the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle motherhouse in New York City after a struggle with cancer. He was 80 years old.

Charles Joseph Brunick was born May 26, 1943, in Quincy, Massachusetts, one of five children of Vincent and Elizabeth Brunick. When he was in the sixth grade, his family moved to Camden, New Jersey, where he attended Catholic schools.

In September 1961, Charlie began to study at St. Peter’s, the Paulist junior seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. He entered the Paulist novitiate on September 6, 1963, and after studying at St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C., was ordained a priest on March 7, 1970.

Fr. Charlie was a member of the Paulist community for 60 years and a priest for almost 54 years, and served as a campus minister for the first 15 years of his priesthood. From 1970 to 1974, he served at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. He served in Boston from 1974 to 1977 as director of the Newman Center at Boston University. In 1977, Fr. Charlie became pastor at St. John XXIII University Parish at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, serving there through 1985. From 1986 to 1988, he was pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Layton, Utah.

In 1990 Fr. Charlie was named director of the Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That work took him to Chicago in 1993, where he spent the next 14 years as an associate pastor at Old St. Mary’s Church, while still being involved in evangelization work. In 2007, Fr. Charlie moved to Portland, Oregon, where he served first at the Northwest Center for Evangelization and Reconciliation. In 2010, he became pastor at Portland’s St. Philip Neri Church. He entered senior ministry in 2016, living first at the Paulist Motherhouse in New York City. From 2018 to 2022, he lived at the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In July 2023, he returned to the motherhouse.

In addition to his parents Vincent and Elizabeth Brunick, Fr. Charlie was preceded in death by his brothers, Vincent and John Brunick; and his sister, Jane Kolongowski. Fr. Charlie is survived by his brother Paulists; his sister, Betty Ann Wells; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on March 2 at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City. Burial followed at St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery in Oak Ridge, New Jersey.