Oliverio

Msgr. Francis E. Oliverio

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Msgr. Francis E. Oliverio, who served as director of the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and as pastor of Immaculate Conception and Assumption parishes in Tuckahoe and St. Ann’s parish in Ossining, died Sept. 5. He was 83.

Msgr. Oliverio was pastor of Immaculate Conception and Assumption parishes from 1999 until his retirement in 2005. He served as director of the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization under Cardinal O’Connor from 1996 until 2000.

He was pastor of St. Ann’s parish in Ossining from 1981 to 1995, when he became director of evangelization. He was on sabbatical at the Institute for Continuing Education at the North American College in Rome before assuming the evangelization post in 1996.

Cardinal Dolan was the celebrant of a Funeral Mass offered Sept. 12 at Immaculate Conception Church. Msgr. Thomas P. Leonard, pastor of Holy Trinity parish in Manhattan, was the homilist.

Msgr. Oliverio, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease during the last years of his life, was remembered during Msgr. Leonard’s homily as a “joy-filled, impish, exuberant, enthusiastic member of Christ’s priestly corps.”

“He has been singularly tested these last six years of priesthood,” said Msgr. Leonard, who was a classmate of Msgr. Oliverio’s at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie.

“We were rendered mute as we watched him on the ‘wine press of sorrow’ repeating in his own, singular fashion, the death of the Lord—an offering of self at the most profound level,” Msgr. Leonard said.

From 1957 to 1963, Msgr. Oliverio was chaplain at St. Agatha’s Home in Nanuet. He also served in the Bronx at the following parishes: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Lucy’s and St. Joseph’s.

Msgr. Leonard said of Msgr. Oliverio, “His love of children and care for them at St. Agatha’s matched his innocence that they recognized. After serving in the Bronx, his first true love was his pastoral assignment at St. Ann’s in Ossining—a multi-national flock that embraced him.”

Of the suffering Msgr. Oliverio experienced and accepted late in his life, Msgr. Leonard said, “From a human point of view, we might consider it cruel and unusual punishment, but isn’t that cruel and unusual punishment what his Lord had already accepted?”

He said, “He was once our designated evangelizer. In his death he offered his last and most significant lesson.”

Born in Belle Vernon, Pa., he moved to Manhattan with his family as a child. He began his studies for the priesthood in the high school division of Cathedral College in Manhattan and completed them at St. Joseph’s Seminary.

He was ordained in 1956 and named a monsignor in 1995.

He studied Spanish at Georgetown University, and held master’s degrees in pastoral counseling from Iona College and St. John’s University.

He is survived by his sister, Esther. He was buried in Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury.

Msgr. Francis E. Oliverio