About

About us

Pastor

Fr. Brian Campbell originally hails from the State of Illinois where he grew up as a young child until his family moved to the Naples area in the late 1980’s. Growing up in Southwest Florida, Fr. Campbell enjoys boating, swimming, running and various outdoor activities as well as travel. After graduating High School, Father attended Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Theology in 2002. During that time, he was discerning a vocation to the ministerial priesthood and in 2003 became a Seminarian for the Diocese of Palm Beach, FL.

As a seminarian he completed some important assignments for priestly training. These assignments included a year of Pre-Theology at St. John Vianney Seminary in Miami followed by four years of graduate theology at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, where he graduated with an M.Div. in 2009. Fr. Campbell was ordained by Bishop Barbarito to the Priesthood on May 2, 2009 and has served at St. Patrick Church in Palm Beach Gardens (2009-20012), St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Delray Beach (2012-2015), Chaplain to Pope John Paul II High School (2012-2013), Our Lady Queen of the Apostles in Royal Palm Beach (2015-2019), the Latin Mass Community of Holy Spirit Church in Lantana (2009-2019) and writing Sunday Word articles in The Florida Catholic Newspaper since 2015.

Beginning January 1,2020 he was assigned by Bishop Barbarito to be the next Administrator of our parish. As of April 1, 2021 he has been named our official Pastor. Father Campbell looks forward to working with the clergy of St. John’s to serve the needs of the people of God in the Western Vero Beach community. Fr. Campbell loves to teach about the Scriptures and is fully committed to Catholic Christianity as the fullest expression of historic Christian discipleship. He invites questions, meetings and visitations to get to know our community better.

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Assistant Priest

Fr. Michael J. Martin, C.S.P. is originally from Chicago, the eldest of four boys given to Jack and Marge Martin. As Fr. Martin has often said: “I’m 6’9” tall and I don’t play basketball. This is usually how I introduce myself.”

His family faithfully attended St. Mary of the Woods Parish, in Chicago, and he went to parochial schools until college. When he was two, he (and his mother) had polio, which has affected his balance and walking. He attended Knox College, and was always interested in spirituality, minoring in Religion. Upon graduation from college, to quote Robert Frost, “two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I chose the one less travelled, and that has made all the difference.” He chose to attend the Seminary, and learned about the Paulist Fathers, the first religious community of men founded in the United States. They sought “the Conversion of America” and worked on college campuses and with Searchers.

He earned a master’s degree from The Catholic University of America and was ordained a Priest in 1977 at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City. He served the first five years, of his Priesthood at West Virginia University, then went on to the University of Colorado (Boulder) for another five. While there, he received a second Masters in Christian Spirituality from Creighton University, a Jesuit school. Having done some work as a Seminarian and Deacon in Alaska, he accepted the call to be Pastor of St. Nicholas Church in North Pole, Alaska, where he served from 1987 to 1994. “I volunteered; I wasn’t banished!” He likes to remind everyone!

He then took up a Paulist invitation to work in Pope St. John Paul II’s New Evangelization Jubilee Year, preparing Dioceses and Parishes throughout the U.S. for the 2000th anniversary of the Catholic Faith in the year 2000. He was based in Grand Rapids, MI. Then followed seven years at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

After falling and breaking his leg “The doctor told me I couldn’t do snow and ice anymore,” That’s when he considered moving to Vero Beach, Florida in 2007. The first weekend he was in town, he met the new pastor of St. John of the Cross, Fr. John Pasquini on his first Sunday in the Parish, and has been celebrating Mass here for more than a decade. One of his favorite experiences, besides singing Sunday Mass, is Tuesday mornings following the 8:30 Mass, when folks gather for “Tuesday Talks with Fr. Mike”, a conversation with coffee and goodies in the new Parish Hall. He lives with four other Paulist priests, here in Vero Beach.