Fr. Barry was born in Hartford and attended St. Joseph Cathedral Schools before attending St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield and St. Bernard Seminary in Rochester.  He was ordained in Hartford by Archbishop John F. Hackett on May 4, 1967.  He is also a Canon Lawyer, having received his degree from Gregorian University in Rome in 1973.  Canon law is the legal system of the Catholic Church, and canon lawyers assist and advise the clergy and laity in the application of the law. Fr. Barry was a member of the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese of Hartford and has also served several terms on the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Hartford as member, secretary and judge.  The Tribunal assists those seeking marriage annulments.  Father Barry also taught a course in Roman Catholic Polity at Yale Divinity School for five years. He is also the president of the MJB Corporation, a non-profit organization that focuses on economic development in the disadvantaged areas of the city of Hartford.

He has served as pastor of St. Dunstan in Glastonbury, St. Mary in Newington and most recently at St. John of the Cross in Middlebury from 2002 until he was appointed to St. Patrick on March 23 of this year.  He did not anticipate the new appointment, he said, but a sabbatical in Rome last year left him “energized”, and he is looking forward to his time here.

Father Barry is committed to the youth of the Catholic Church. “So many parishes do not have active participation on the part of the young,” he said, and he has vowed to change that and bring more young people into the church through programs. “Teenage spiritual development is crucial to the life and future of the parish,” he said.