Sister Mary Arthur (Dorothy Ann) McCarthy, S.C., a Sister of Charity, Halifax, for 77 years, died Nov. 10 at Mount St. Vincent, Wellsley Hills, Mass. She was 99.

She taught eighth grade at Our Lady of Angels, Bay Ridge, 1949-61, and served as principal, 1967-73.

She also ministered in Massachusetts and retired to Mount St. Vincent in 1996.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held at Mount St. Vincent Nov. 15. Burial followed in St Mary’s Cemetery, Needham, Mass.

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Father Gerard P. Bell, S.J., a native of Brooklyn and a member of the Jesuit Order for 70 years, died Nov. 17 at Murray-Weigel Hall, Bronx. He was 88.

He graduated from Mount St. Michael School in the Bronx and entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

As a scholastic, he taught Latin and English at Brooklyn Prep. After theology studies at Woodstock, he was ordained to the priesthood on June 22, 1957 at the Fordham University Church by Bishop Joseph Pernicone. His final year of Jesuit formation was completed at the Jesuit Martyrs Shrine, Auriesville, N.Y.

Prior to his many years in retreat ministry, he served as assistant to the master of novices at the novitiate at Plattsburgh, N.Y.

He was assigned to the Loyola House of Retreats, Morristown, N.J., Jesuit retreat houses in Staten Island and at Loyola-on-Potomac and as a chaplain at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, N.J., and Catholic University, Washington, D.C.

For many years, he lived in Silver Springs, Md., and was the director of the Insignis Foundation.

In 2012, he was assigned to Murray-Weigel Hall, due to illness. Burial was at the Jesuit Cemetery, Auriesville.

Father Francis W. Wright, C.S.Sp., a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Bethel Park, Pa., for 65 years, died Nov. 12. He was 92.

Born in Floral Park, L.I., he was ordained to the priesthood on June 3, 1949 at St. Mary’s Seminary, Ferndale in Norwalk, Conn.

Father Wright served the congregation as assistant vocation director, 1950-55, director of the Holy Spirit Fathers Apostolic College, Bensalem, Pa., 1955-60, vocation director, 1960-64, and mission procurator, 1964-73.

In 1973, he was named national director of the Holy Childhood Association, Pittsburgh. He moved the headquarters to Washington, D.C., in 1981 and held the role of national director for 28 years.

From 2001 until his retirement in 2013, he helped with ministry in several parishes, including Holy Family, Hicksville, L.I., and Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dyker Heights.

He also received the papal award, Cross Pro Eccelsia et Pontifice in 2001, for his service to the Holy Childhood Association and outreach to youth.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Nov. 22 in the Chapel at Holy Ghost Prep School, Bensalem. Burial followed in the Holy Ghost Fathers Cemetery, Bensalem.

Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, known for his service to the poor and the sick in a ministry that began in Rome during World War II and included sheltering Jews from the Nazis, died Nov. 22 at the age of 98.

At the time of his death, he was the only member of the College of Cardinals to have been born in Rome.

From 1947 to 1954, he served Pope Pius XII as one of the liturgical masters of ceremony, taught religion in Rome public schools and served as the ecclesiastical assistant to the men’s section of Catholic Action.

In 1956, he was named a bishop; he served the Italian bishops’ conference and then became the auxiliary bishop of Rome in charge of the diocese’s health care programs.

In 1985, when St. John Paul II established the first Vatican office promoting Catholic health care, he chose then-Bishop Angelini to lead it. The office became a pontifical council in 1988. St. John Paul made him a cardinal in 1991.

With the death of Cardinal Angelini, the College of Cardinals has 209 members, 113 of whom are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave.

Bishop Leonard J. Olivier, a retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and a priest for more than 60 years, died Nov. 19.

He was 91 and lived at the Jeanne Jugan Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Washington.

On Nov. 7, 1988, St. John Paul II appointed then-Father Olivier, a priest of the Society of the Divine Word, as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington.

At the time of his episcopal ordination, he became the nation’s 13th black bishop. Over the years in Washington, Bishop Olivier served as the regional bishop for the District of Columbia, Prince George’s County, Maryland, and southern Maryland.

He retired in 2004, several months before his 81st birthday.

When his retirement was announced, Bishop Olivier said, “Serving and living as an auxiliary bishop has been a huge blessing for me and, I hope, for the people of the archdiocese. All kinds of blessings have come my way.”

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A Mass of Christian Burial for Father Daniel Weiscopf was celebrated on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church, Forest Hills.

Father Weiscopf

He died Nov. 28 at Coney Island Hospital. He had been living at SS. Joachim and Anne Nursing Home, Coney Island, since 2009. He was 73.

Born in the Bronx, Father Weiscopf attended Sacred Heart School there; St. Joseph’s Normal School, Barrytown, N.Y.; St. John’s University, Jamaica; and Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington.

Prior to his entrance into the seminary, he was a member of the N.Y.S. Court System from 1969 to 1985. He was a court officer in Family Court, 1969-71; Brooklyn Supreme Court, 1971-73; Court Clerk, Kings Co. Supreme Court, 1973-83; and Court Clerk, Nassau Dept. of Traffic Court, 1983-85.

He was ordained June 2, 1990 by Bishop Thomas V. Daily at Immaculate Conception Pastoral Center Chapel, Douglaston.

He served as an assistant at St. Francis Xavier, Park Slope, 1990-95; Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, 1995-2005; and St. Francis of Assisi, Astoria, 2005-07. He was chaplain at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, Far Rockaway, with residence at St. Mary Star of the Sea, 2007-09.

He also served as the diocesan chaplain for Catholic Scouting.

Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez was the main celebrant of the funeral Mass. Special concelebrants included Very Rev. Thomas Pettei and Fathers James Cunningham and Joseph Vu. Father Richard Lewkiewicz preached the homily.

Father Weiscopf is survived by his brother, Dennis, of Manhattan.

Burial was in Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx.

***

Charles Valero, the brother of retired Auxiliary Bishop Rene A. Valero, died Dec. 1 at the Hospice Unit of Flushing Hospital Medical Center.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Dec. 4 at Queen of Peace Church, Kew Gardens.

Burial was in Mount St. Mary Cemetery, Flushing.

***

Jesuit Father Vincent McNally died on his 97th birthday, Nov. 29, at Murray-Weigel Hall, the Bronx.

Father McNally, S.J.

Born in Brooklyn, he attended Brooklyn Prep. After one year at Fordham University, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1935.

A priest for 66 years, he was ordained in June, 1948 at Weston College, Weston, Mass.

Following his final year of Jesuit formation, he served in the Philippines from 1950 to 1969, as principal at three Jesuit high schools and as rector/president of two colleges in Naga and Zamboanga.

In 1969 he returned to the U.S. and took up a ministries in retreat centers in Staten Island, 1979-82, and Auriesville, 1983-99, and as a chaplain on Ward’s Island, 1976-79. From 1972 to 1976, he resided at Kohlmann Hall and was the assistant to the vice-provincial for social and pastoral ministry.

In 1999, he moved to Canisius College, Buffalo, working as campus minister and in the community in pastoral ministry. In 2010, he took up residence at the Jesuit infirmary, Murray-Weigel Hall.

Burial took place Dec. 2 in the Jesuit cemetery in Auriesville.

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A Mass of Christian Burial for Father James M. Dunne, former pastor of St. Camillus parish, Rockaway Park, was celebrated Dec. 22 at the church. He died Dec. 18.

Born in Brooklyn, he attended Cathedral College; Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington; and Catholic University, Washington, D.C. He was ordained June 3, 1961 by Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart at St. James Pro-Cathedral, Downtown Brooklyn.

He served as an assistant at St. Catherine of Genoa, East Flatbush, 1961; Ascension, Elmhurst, 1961-68; St. Robert Bellarmine, Bayside, 1968- 80; St. Francis de Sales, Belle Harbor, 1980-88 and was administrator there from 1988 to 1990.

He was named pastor of St. Camillus, Rockaway Park, in 1990 and served there until his retirement in 2007.

Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto was the main celebrant of the funeral Mass. Special concele- brants included Msgrs. Martin Geraghty and Vincent A. Keane, who preached the homily, and Father Richard J. Ahlemeyer.

Parishioners appreciated his homilies and wit.

He travelled to the Holy Land and Rome; he went with Msgr. Keane to Central America to visit the shrines of the Martyrs, including Sister Maura Clarke, M.M., whom he knew from Rockaway.

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WASHINGTON (CNS) – Moral theologian William E. May, who taught theology for decades and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles, died Dec. 13 at age 86 surrounded by members of his family in a Maryland suburb of Washington.

His funeral Mass was celebrated Dec. 20 at Holy Redeemer parish in Kensington, Md., followed by burial at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Md.

Catholic journalist and author Russell Shaw described May as “one of the most prominent moral theologians of his day” who was “a forthright defender of orthodox Catholic faith; the prolific author of a steady stream of books and articles, scholarly and popular alike; and a dedicated teacher, who helped prepare hundreds of young men and women for academic careers and pastoral service in and to the Church.”

Shaw, writing in the Dec. 16 issue of Our Sunday Visitor, also described May as a “devoted husband and father and a faithful, big-hearted friend of extraordinary generosity who was never happier than when giving others the praise he thought they deserved.”

Since 2008, May had been a senior research fellow at the Culture of Life Foundation, a Washington-based research and educational institute.

From 1991 to 2008, he was the Michael J. McGivney professor of moral theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington. Before that he taught at Catholic University for 20 years.

He also taught at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and several other institutions. In 1986, Pope John Paul II appointed him a member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, a position he held through 1997. He was a theological expert at the 1987 world Synod of Bishops on the vocation and mission of the laity.

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A Mass of Christian Burial for Kevin M. Kearney, a partner in the law firm of Wingate, Kearney and Cullen, was celebrated Jan. 7 at St. Francis de Sales Church, Belle Harbor.

The main celebrant of the funeral Mass was Msgr. Otto L. Garcia, a long- time friend.

Kearney, 61, died Jan. 3 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

A graduate of Manhattan College, 1974, and St. John’s University School of Law, 1977, Kearney represented the Diocese of Brooklyn for more than 37 years on various legal matters, as did his late father, John Kearney.

He has been engaged in representation, education and litigation in all aspects of legal issues facing not-for- profit and religious. Additionally, he regularly counseled religious, charitable and academic institutions in regulatory, tax, real estate, trust and estate and general corporate matters.

A frequent lecturer and a regular panel participant in the annual Diocesan Wills and Estates Seminar, Kearney was a member of the Brooklyn and New York State Bar Associations and the Catholic Lawyers Guild.

He was a member of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and has served on the New York State Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Legal Advisory Committee. He was a Director of Concern Worldwide US, an international human relief organization for which he has traveled extensively in reviewing projects in Asia, Africa and Central America.

Kearney is a former president of the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn as well as the Emerald Association of Long Island and was active with Futures in Education. An ardent runner at Nazareth R.H.S., Brooklyn, and Manhattan College, Kearney ran several New York City Marathons and was a member of the Rockaway Gliders.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Beth, and their children Christine, Elisa, and Sean; and his brothers John and James.

Burial was in St. John’s Cemetery, Middle Village.

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Deacon Carlo V. Mellace, 70, for- mer director of the diocesan Italian Apostolate, died Dec. 29, in Calabria, Italy, where he was spending Christmas with his siblings. A funeral Mass followed by his burial took place there on Dec. 31.

Born in Olivadi, Italy, he earned his doc- torate in economics and attained the rank of lieu- tenant in the Italian Army before immigrating to Brooklyn in 1979.

He was ordained to the diaconate April 9, 1988 by Bishop Francis Mugavero. He served the parish of St. Dominic, Bensonhurst, and later SS. Simon and Jude, Gravesend.

Deacon Mellace worked as controller of the Mason Tenders District Council Trust Funds before becoming a compliance auditor for the diocesan Office of Fiscal Management.

He is a past treasurer of Community School Board 20.

In 1990, he received a citation from Brooklyn Borough President Howard J. Golden for his many contributions to Brooklyn’s Italian American community.

He is survived by his wife, Teodolinda, and hisson, Alfredo.

A memorial Mass will be scheduled in the coming weeks.

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Sister Noreen Butler, O.P., 82, a Sister of St. Dominic, Amityville, L.I., for 64 years, died Dec. 11.

Born in New York to Irish immigrants, she met the Dominican Sisters at St. Agnes Academic H.S., College Point. She entered the con- gregation on Sept. 8, 1950.

Formerly known as Sister Denis Patrick, her early ministry was as an elementary school teacher in the parish schools of St. Barbara, Bushwick, and Holy Family, Park Slope. She had a deep love for music, especially Church and classical music. She held a bachelor’s degree in music with a specialty in liturgical music from Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, Purchase, N.Y., and a master’s degree in music from Queens College.

Beginning in 1970 she was able to put her talent on the violin and her broader musical studies into service in several schools both on the elementary and the high school level. In the early 1970s, Sister Noreen taught music at several schools, including St. Luke, Whitestone; St. Elizabeth, South Ozone Park; Our Lady of Lourdes, Queens Village; Christ the King, Springfield Gardens; and Dominican Commercial H.S., Jamaica.

From 1975 to 2002, Sister Noreen ministered in St. Luke’s parish as the parish liturgist. She was responsible for all the music as well as a consultant on liturgical issues. She started a men’s choir, a children’s choir and an adult choir.

In 2002, she moved to the Motherhouse in Amityville where she again offered her talents as a liturgist and cantor.

Survivors include her brothers Liam and Murice, and her sister, Sister Mary Butler, O.P.

Interment was in the Sisters’ cemetery in Amityville.

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Sister M. Ann Veronica Helbig, O.P., a Sister of St. Dominic, Amityville, L.I., for 63 years, died on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Jan. 1. She was 82.

Born Florence Helbig in South Ozone Park, she recognized her call to religious life as a teenager and completed her high school education at the Dominican Sisters’ Juniorate, then located at Villa Maria, Watermill, L.I. She entered the congregation on Sept. 8, 1951, and received her habit and religious name the following year. On Aug. 7, 1953, she pronounced her vows.

Her early ministry was in elementary education. She taught at Holy Family School, Park Slope; St. Hugh of Lincoln School, Huntington Station, L.I., and Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Lindenhurst, L.I. During these years, her father converted to Catholicism and Sister Ann Veronica credited her friend, Sister St. Joseph, with helping to bring about this blessing.

In 1976, she began her service at the Amityville Motherhouse as a driver, taking members of the congregation to doctor’s appointments and to fulfill other tasks.

In 2008, she began her ministry of intercessory prayer in Carlin Hall at the Motherhouse. Two years later, poor health necessitated a move to Maria Regina Residence, Brentwood.

She is survived by her brother Robert.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in St. Albert’s Chapel, Amityville, Jan. 5. Interment followed in the Sisters’ cemetery.

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Sister Carol Ann Swan, S.C., 79, a Sister of Charity, Halifax, Nova Scotia, for 58 years, died Dec. 12 at Mount St. Vincent, Wellsley Hills, Mass.

Formerly known as Sister William Margaret, she spent 35 years of her religious life ministering in the Brooklyn and Rockville Centre dioceses.

She taught fifth and sixth grades at Our Lady of the Cenacle, Richmond Hill, 1956-60, and taught at Bishop Reilly H.S., Fresh Meadows, 1965-70.

She also ministered in Halifax, Bermuda and Massachusetts as a director of spiritual development and retreat director.

In 2010, she retired to the Mount St. Vincent Motherhouse due to declining health.

She is survived by her brothers, John C. Swan of Lowell, Mass., and William J. Swan of Appleton, Wisc.

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A Mass of Christian burial for Msgr. Cornelius T. Kneafsey, the retired pastor of Our Lady of the Cenacle, Richmond Hill, was celebrated in the chapel at the Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston, on Dec. 30. He died Dec. 24 at New York Medical Center, Flushing. He was 81.

Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto was the main celebrant of the funeral Mass. Special concelebrants included Msgrs. Joseph Pfeiffer and John O’Brien, and Fathers Richard Donovan, Edmund Brady, John Fitzgerald and Dominick Cutrone, who preached the homily.

Born in Brooklyn, Msgr. Kneafsey was baptized in St. Anthony of Padua Church, Greenpoint. He attended St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, and Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington. He was ordained by Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart on May 31, 1958 at St. James Pro-Cathedral, Downtown Brooklyn.

He served as an assistant at Presentation B.V.M., Jamaica, 1958- 60; St. Boniface, Downtown Brooklyn, 1960-69; American Martyrs, Bayside, 1969-76; and St. Fidelis, College Point, 1976-80.

He was named pastor of Our Lady of the Cenacle, Richmond Hill, in 1980 and served there until 2004 when he retired.

“He always loved the priesthood from the very beginning, that was his life,” said Father Cutrone, a friend since seminary. “Once he was a priest he loved to say Mass everyday. He loved the breviary. He was there for people when ever anyone needed help. He was there to comfort them as a priest and as a pastor. He especially loved his family, his nieces and nephews. He loved family gatherings. He baptized all his nieces and nephews. He loved children. He had a great sense of humor. He had a quip. He loved sharing that with the children.”

Among the immediate survivors was his sister, Margaret Mackrell of Hampton Bays, L.I.

Burial was in Mount St. Mary’s Cemetery, Flushing.

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Sister Cecilia Catherine Batten, S.C., 81, a Sister of Charity, Halifax, Nova Scotia, for 62 years, died Dec. 7 in Drummond Hall, Parkland Estates, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Locally, she taught fifth grade at Our Lady Help of Christians, Midwood, 1954-57.She ministered in various parts of Nova Scotia until her retirement to Caritas Residence, Halifax, in 2013.

Burial was in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Nova Scotia.

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Sister Claire O’Neill, C.I.J., a member of the Congregation of the Infant Jesus (Nursing Sisters of the Sick Poor), Rockville Centre, L.I., for 57 years, died Dec. 27 at the congregation’s infirmary, Villa St. Joseph, Rockville Centre.

She entered the congregation in 1957 and received the religious name Sister Mary Martinus. She made her final vows in 1962.

She lived at the Motherhouse in Brooklyn; St. Anthony’s Convent, East Meadow, L.I., and then went into nurses’ training at St. John’s Hospital, Queens, to become a registered nurse.

She served as an assistant infirmarian, 1964-65, and then as assistant mistress of novices, 1965-68. She worked in the congregation’s home care ministry, Nursing Sisters Home Visiting Service. She was a staff nurse, supervisor and a home care coordinator at Mercy Medical Center, Rockville Centre.

She was elected and served eight years as a councilor and executive secretary for the order. She became a resident of the community’s infirmary in 2010 when her health began to fail.

Burial was at Holy Rood Cemetery, Westbury, L.I.

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Father James P. Sinnott, M.M., a native of Brooklyn, died Dec. 23 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul, South Korea. He was 85 years old and a Maryknoll priest for 54 years.

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Father Richard McBrien, 78, noted theologian and prolific writer who served on the faculty of Notre Dame University, South Bend, Ind., for almost three decades, died Jan. 25 in his native Connecticut, where he had recently returned. He had been ill for the past several years.

His popular works included “Catholicism,” “Lives of the Saints” and “Lives of the Popes.”

He also wrote a popular theology weekly column which ran in as many as 25 Catholic newspapers in the country, including The Tablet.

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