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The Most Reverend Alexander J. Brunett was installed as the fourth Archbishop of Seattle at a Mass of Installation on Thursday, December 18, 1997 at St. James Cathedral, Seattle, Washington. The staff of the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Seattle rejoice with our local Church and welcome our new Archbishop.

Archbishop Brunett is a native of Detroit, Michigan. Born on January 17, 1934, he was the second of 14 children born to Cecilia and Raymond Brunett.

Educated at St. Ambrose Grade School in Grosse Point Park, Michigan, and Sacred Heart Seminary High School in Detroit, Archbishop Brunett studied for the priesthood at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on July 13, 1958. 

Archbishop Brunett holds degrees in theology and education, and did post-graduate work in ecumenical studies in Jerusalem, Paris, and Radolfzell, Germany.

He has been an associate pastor of two Michigan parishes, and pastor of St. Aidan Parish in Livonia, Michagan, and Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in Royal Oak, Michigan. He has also been a university chaplain, and was academic dean of St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan. 

From 1973 to 1991 Archbishop Brunett served as director of the Division of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the Archdiocese of Detroit, and from 1974 until 1981 was president of the National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers.

In the Detroit Archdiocese he served as chairman of the Archdiocesan Theological Commission, vicar for the Northwest Wayne Vicariate, and as an editorial writer for "The Michigan Catholic" newspaper. The third national chairman of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue in Detroit, Archbishop Brunett has participated in many Jewish-Catholic programs and has edited several published studies. He has also served as president of the Ecumenical Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies, an organization he co-founded. In 1989 he was chosen by the Temple Beth El of Birmingham, Michigan, to receive the Leo Franklin Award in Human Relations in "recognition of his efforts to combat anti-Semitism and to create a climate of mutual respect in Catholic-Jewish relations."

Named a monsignor in 1990, Archbishop Brunett was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Helena, Montana, by Pope John Paul II in 1994.

In April 1996, Archbishop Brunett received the DOVE Award from the Ecumenical Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies in Detroit. That same year he was elected chairman of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.¹

¹ biographical information quoted from the booklet distributed at the Mass of Installation, December 18, 1997