Tom Connery

Fr. Tom Connery is the kind of priest people describe with a smile. Those who sit in his pews talk about homilies that are honest, life-related, and always delivered with a touch of humor that makes the whole church feel a little lighter. Parishioners say that having access to Fr. Tom on a daily basis is a comforting feeling, and visitors from as far as Indialantic have said they leave spiritually fed by his teaching. Fr. Tom is one of six children and a sports fan from Queens, New York. He was ordained in 1983 and has since spent over four decades in ministry, serving in schools, summer camps, and summer mission work before being assigned to St. Theresa in 2018, a place he believes St. Therese herself guided him to. He is the kind of pastor who always speaks from the heart, the kind people thank God for sending to their parish. His allegiance still remains with his New York teams, and he is not shy about it. He enjoys going to the gym and swimming, and hopes that when he loses some weight, he will get back on the tennis court. He is the proud and devoted companion of a precious dachshund named Moses. But what truly drives Fr. Tom is people. Under his leadership, the parish launched a soup kitchen that feeds over two hundred meals a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. What began as a way to care for the hungry became something deeper when Fr. Tom saw in it an opportunity to evangelize, filling the space with faith conversations, Catholic materials, and communal prayer. He has since had the joy of baptizing soup kitchen attendees who came through RCIA, and watched them inspire others to follow. His greatest pleasure, he says, is still celebrating Mass at St. Theresa, the place he now calls home. Fr. Tom once said he is far from satisfied, and that is what makes the work fun.