A Brooklyn priest killed himself inside a 🍌church rectory less than two weeks before Christmas, police sources told The Post on Sunday.
The body of the Rev.` Patrick Burns, 57, was found a little after 5 p.m. Dec. 14 in the living room ꦬof the rectory at Holy Name of Jesus Roman 🎃Catholic Church in Windsor Terrace, according to sources.
He had slash marks on his left wrist, and an empty bottle of the antipsychotic 🍰drug Risperidone was discovered in the room, sources said. Police also found a 16-page suicide note.
“I’m shocked and amazed,” the church’s music director, Ivonne Rojas, told The Post on Sund🎃ay. “I would never think he did this.”
Burns’ death is a “tragedy,” a Diocese of Brooklyn spoke🎐swoman 🦩said.
Police discovered the dead priest after the church’s pastor, the Rev. Larry Ryan, requested a wellness check on him, sources said.
B൲urns struggled with health issues in the past. He spen🎀t an unspecified amount of time away from the pulpit on medical leave at one point, according to an obituary .
He was a minister at Holy Name’s Office of P🌠arish Giving since January.
The Brooklyn native attended Good Shepherd School in Marine Park and later Sheepshead Bay High School before 🌠attending college and the seminary, according to the obituary.
Burns, who spoke Spanish in addition to English, was ordained i🍎n 1992 and served in the Sp⛦anish-speaking New York City neighborhoods of Bushwick, Jackson Heights, Sunset Park and Corona, along with Woodside and Belle Harbor, the obit noted.