New pastor at Chatham parish

CHATHAM TOWNSHIP  Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit on Sunday, March 17 to Corpus Christi Parish here where he celebrated Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent. During the Mass, the Bishop officially installed Father T. Kevin Corcoran as Corpus Christi’s new pastor.

Born on May 22, 1968, Father Corcoran was raised in Dover, the third of five children. He was graduated from Morris Catholic High School in Denville in 1986. He also spent four years in the U.S. Air Force, working in electronics calibration. During this time, he was stationed in Texas, Colorado and Korea. While in Korea, he received a Black Belt in Taekwondo at the University of Seoul. Father Corcoran received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in theology from St. Mary Seminary and University in Baltimore. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson on Nov. 27, 1999 by Bishop Rodimer. He was then assigned to St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne as parochial vicar. In 2003, he was elected to the diocesan Clergy Personnel Board for a five-year term representing parochial vicars. In 2005, he was appointed assistant vocations director for a two-year term. He was reappointed to that post and the Bishop also named him chair of the diocesan Vocations Board for a two-year term. In 2007, Father Corcoran was named priest-secretary to the Bishop, master of ceremonies and vice chancellor. He was appointed by the Bishop as censor liborum (censor of books) for the Diocese in 2012. In 2015, the Department for Persons with Disabilities, an agency of Catholic Charities, honored him as its “Person of the Year.” The Bishop appointed him as pastor of Corpus Christi in February.