Fr. Patrick was born and grew up in Glendale, the third of nine children in the home of Joseph and Frances Mullen. He had two older sisters, Mary and Kathy, and was followed by Michael, Norah, Elizabeth, Ted, Margaret and Christopher – truly an Irish American household.
The family attended Holy Family Parish, in Glendale, where he was baptized, made his first Reconciliation, Holy Communion and Confirmation, and celebrated his first Mass. He attended the parish grade school from first to eighth grade, where he was taught by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVMs), to whom he is forever grateful. He next attended two years at Pater Noster High School, in Los Angeles, with the Brothers of St. Patrick, who are lovely men.
At the age of 16, he started his ten years of seminary life at Queen of Angels Minor Seminary, in San Fernando (now Bishop Alemany High School). He had sung in the children’s choir at his home parish, but it was at the minor seminary that he participated in and directed a choir that sang pieces with complicated rhythms and harmonies. It was a strong beginning to a life filled with music. He lived, Monday through Friday at the seminary, in big dorms with nineteen other youth during those two years, which he remembers fondly.
He came to Camarillo for the first time in 1977 to study for his BA in Liberal Arts (1981), and then his M.Div. (1985) at St. John’s Seminary. He remembers with great fondness the priests who taught there, including some who worked in local parishes: Fathers Charlie Miller, Newman Eberhardt, Roy Persich and Mike Roebert.
He was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1985, by Cardinal Timothy Manning at the old cathedral, St. Vibiana’s in downtown Los Angeles. He said his first Mass at Holy Family in Glendale. His chalice was a gift from his grandmother, Mary Coniglio-Kavanaugh.
His first parish assignment was at St. Margaret Mary’s in Lomita, CA, where he had the wonderful example of Fr. Joe Sartoris (now Bishop Sartoris) to inspire him. The parish was warm and friendly, noted for its wonderful music groups, beautiful liturgies, and vibrant parish life. It was a wonderful place to start ministry.
As was the custom at the time, after four years, he moved to St. John Vianney’s in Hacienda Heights. It was there he first encountered a young, talented choir director, Dominic MacAller. The pastor, Msgr. James O’Callaghan, was hardworking, fiery and determined – a great priest but very different from Fr. Sartoris.
In his seventh year of ministry, Cardinal Mahony asked him to pursue doctoral studies in Sacred Scripture, to teach at St. John’s Seminary in the graduate program. He spent seven intense and wonderful years diving into biblical languages and the Bible, particularly the New Testament, at the Graduate School of Theology (GTU) in Berkeley. His particular study applied cultural anthropology to the layered use of Jewish purity codes in the New Testament. He received his Licentiate (a master’s degree on steroids) in Sacred Theology in 1998 from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley (now the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University). A year later, in 1999, he defended his dissertation and was awarded his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies, New Testament (GTU).
In the fall of that same year, 1999, he returned to St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, and began teaching New Testament courses in the M.Div. and Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry programs. He continued teaching there full time for sixteen years. During that time, Fr. Patrick also worked in continuing education for priests, lecturing on Scripture and preaching for the priests of the dioceses of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Phoenix, Utah, Boise, Reno, Texas, New Jersey and Detroit.
He also has been a yearly presenter at the nation’s largest annual catechetical gathering, the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference, and has lectured for the Little Rock Bible Study Summer Workshop, the Bible Institute for Everyday Living in Brisbane Australia, the Texas Catholic Conference, as well as regional conferences in San Diego, Las Vegas, Reno, Boise and Fresno. During the past 20 years, he has given well over 300 workshops and lectures.
During those years, he authored 54 works, including journal articles, reviews, pastoral preaching aids, updates, a CD series, Dealing with Difficult Scripture Passages (Now You Know Media, 2010), and two books, Dining with Pharisees (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, October 2004), and a high school textbook, Sacred Scripture: A Catholic Study of God’s Word (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press 2013).
In 2010, while still teaching full-time at St. John’s Seminary, Fr. Patrick came to Padre Serra Parish as administrator pro tem (2010), administrator (2011), and finally as pastor (2012).
During these years, with the support of an amazing pastoral team and the financial and emotional assistance of the parishioners of Padre Serra, the parish has founded a wonderful adult faith formation team to provide continuing education for adults, restored youth ministry to a full-time position and built on the already wonderful parish liturgies that are joyful and prayerful. The parish added Stay and Play for toddlers during the Sunday morning liturgies. The staff now includes a full-time tech staff person to increase the parish’s online presence with twice-rebuilt webpages, and presence on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Tumbler. More recently, the parish has provided live-streamed liturgies, initially to address the parishioners’ needs in the pandemic, but with the intent to continue online liturgies into the future.