Msgr. George F. Bardes

Msgr. George F. Bardes, retired pastor of St. Thomas More parish in Manhattan and one of the most highly respected priests in the archdiocese, died Aug. 16 at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. He was 94.

He served as pastor at St. Thomas More from 1981 until his retirement in 1994. Previously he was pastor of SS. John and Paul, Larchmont, 1970-1981.

He also was a professor of social ethics and the social sciences at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, 1960-1970, and a member of the archdiocesan Board of Consultors, as well as executive secretary of the archdiocesan Commission for Interfaith Financing, a director of the Catholic School Association and a member of the Commission on Church Properties. He also served on the board of directors of the Yorkville Christian-Jewish Council.

From 1948 to 1970 he served at St. John the Evangelist parish, White Plains and as Newman Club chaplain at Westchester Community College, Valhalla.

Auxiliary Bishop Dominick J. Lagonegro, episcopal vicar of Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster and Northern Westchester/Putnam counties, was to celebrate Msgr. Bardes’ Funeral Mass on Aug. 21 at St. Thomas More Church.

Bishop Lagonegro remembered Msgr. Bardes from his own youth growing up in White Plains. “When I was in high school he was stationed in White Plains and he had a wonderful reputation as a very good priest,” he recalled. “I can remember my mom being very impressed when she was in the hospital a few times with him visiting people in the hospital and she always said how great he was visiting the sick.

“He was very interested in social action and I think that’s the reason he taught social ethics at (St. Joseph’s) seminary at one point as an adjunct,” Bishop Lagonegro said.

A chair at the seminary, the Msgr. George F. Bardes Chair in Social Justice, is named in his honor.

A native of Manhattan, Msgr. Bardes attended Incarnation School, Cathedral Prep and Cathedral College before entering St. Joseph’s Seminary in 1938. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1944. Pope Paul VI elevated him to monsignor in 1970.

He held three degrees from The Catholic University of America, including a doctorate in sacred theology.

In a column for Catholic New York, Msgr. Bardes once wrote: “For Christians, physical death is seen as an obligatory passage to life in abundance. When death approaches, God’s friends should not fear it.”

Burial was to be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Valhalla.