Rev. James Sullivan

Rector
Phone: 203-574-0017
Email: Click Here to Email

Fr. Jim Sullivan was born in Waterbury CT. He attended St. Hedwig School in Naugatuck, then Kennedy High School in Waterbury, graduating in 1978. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Providence College in Rhode Island. Always believing in service to others, after college he volunteered for one year in an inner-city school in Washington DC, teaching, coaching basketball and helping repair a rundown convent. It was there that he developed a love for building and restoration work.
Upon his return to Connecticut in 1987, he and his brother John established Sullivan Brothers, a building and contracting business. He worked in the construction trade for the next 25 years. In 2003, he felt the call from God to become a deacon in the Catholic Church and was ordained in 2008, serving six years in the Torrington Cluster of Roman Catholic Parishes. During his time there, unbeknownst to him, a number of parishioners were praying that he become a priest. Eventually, feeling called by God, he began two additional years of study in 2012 at St. John's Seminary in Boston. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 17, 2014 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford CT. He is grateful to have celebrated his very first Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury.
His first assignment as a priest was to serve the four Catholic churches in Torrington. After serving in Torrington for just over one year, Archbishop Blair, in October 2015 assigned him to the Church of the Assumption in Ansonia as the pastor. In January 2019, he was appointed rector of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury. Fr. Sullivan has loved all of his assignments but has a special love for Waterbury, his hometown. As a priest, Fr. Sullivan continues to love building, especially building spiritually. He has said, “I have moved from building and remodeling homes, to building and remodeling hearts.”