New Catholic priest excited to serve Team Offutt

  • Published
  • By Delanie Stafford
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  Members of Offutt's Catholic community will see a new face at Mass from now on. The Rev. Bernard Byrne, who goes by "Father Bernie," will conduct fulltime Roman Catholic services for members of Team Offutt.

"We are thrilled to have Father Bernie joining our team," said U.S. Air Force Chaplain (Maj.) Bradley Kimble, 55th Wing chaplain. "Father Bernie is a very warm and welcoming priest with a lot of experience. He will be a great asset and we are blessed to have him."

Byrne most recently served as the senior associate pastor at St. Wenceslaus Church in Omaha. After his assignment concluded, he heard about the opening at Offutt and thought it would be a great opportunity to serve the military community.

"It will be a wonderful experience to work with the men and women of the armed services," Byrne said. "I plan to be here as long as the good lord lets me."

Byrne brings an abundance of life experience to the Offutt Catholic community.

He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and comes from a proud Irish family. After high school, he served briefly in the Marine Corps before attending college at St. John's University to study law. He married, began a career practicing law and had seven kids.

His wife passed from Leukemia at the age of 51 and he continued to practice law while raising his kids in Omaha. Upon retirement, he decided being a priest was what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. So he went back to school at a three-year seminary in Wisconsin to become a priest, and has been helping families grow in their faith since.

Byrne said he is excited to meet the men and women of Team Offutt and even has an interesting tie to the base - he walked his daughter down the aisle of the Capehart Chapel in her marriage to an Air Force member.

He said he hopes to soon be performing marriage services for other young couples.

"I'm going to give the folks nothing less than my very best," he said. "We're going to give them a full line of priestly service; masses, confessions, weddings, baptisms...I'm just thrilled about the opportunity to be the priest here."