Deceased clergy remembered at annual Mass, online memorial
On a late October afternoon, the families of 24 deceased priests and deacons filled the pews of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., summed up the men they had lost in a single sentence: “They were faithful, they were true, and until their very last breath, they were his witnesses.”
The annual Memorial Mass for Deceased Clergy, celebrated on Oct. 27, remembered nine permanent deacons and 15 priests of the Archdiocese of Newark who died between Oct. 31, 2025, and Oct. 14, 2026. They ranged in age from 61 to 95. The oldest ordination among them dates to 1955, in the Philippines; the most recent, to 2018, when the Cardinal himself laid hands on the youngest of them.
In his homily, Cardinal Tobin drew upon the archdiocese’s pastoral renewal initiative We Are His Witnesses when referring to the 24 men. “This pastoral priority is not a slogan for a banner or merely a heading on a diocesan letter,” he said. “It was the lifeblood of the men we mourn today.”
Drawing upon the Book of Job, the cardinal reminded mourners that the bodies of these men, “the feet that walked rectory floors, the voices that preached from our pulpits, the hands that anointed the sick,” were “not disposable shells; they were instruments of grace.” He then turned to St. Paul’s list of trials: “anguish, distress, persecution, famine, peril, the sword.”
“Our deceased brothers tasted those trials,” Cardinal Tobin said.
Bringing hope to places of suffering
Indeed, stories of the clergy who died in the past year reflect lives that carried the Gospel into places of isolation and suffering, including hospital wards, prisons, war zones, and places of tragedy. They include:
A longtime chaplain to the Bayonne Fire Department, Father John R. Doherty rode an ambulance out of Bayonne to lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001. While ministering beside first responders at Ground Zero, he was struck by debris from one of the collapsing towers. Injured, he kept praying with and comforting the people around him.
Father Peter A. Oddo first ministered to people struggling with alcohol and drug addiction, then served 24 years in the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of captain. He sailed on the supercarrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson, served in the Persian Gulf War, and earned the Navy Commendation Medal.
There were also deacons, “ordained to the ministry of charity,” who were “poor in spirit, emptying themselves to serve the marginalized, the homeless, and the forgotten,” as Cardinal Tobin said in his homily.
Among those we lost this year:
Deacon Gary F. Tankard served as a hospice chaplain, leading wake services when no priest was available; Deacon Joseph J. Nazzaro, a member of the archdiocese’s first class of permanent deacons in 1975, devoted his early ministry to the sick and homebound; and Deacon Michael DeRoberts was chaplain at the Union County Jail until it closed.
Peacemakers and builders of unity
Cardinal Tobin also spoke in his homily of peacemakers who spent “countless hours navigating parish conflicts, balancing budgets, and striving to maintain the unity of the spirit.”
His words are reflected in the lives of two of this year’s deceased who were especially known for their ministry to immigrants:
Monsignor João S. Antão accompanied Portuguese-speaking families arriving in Newark, helped found the newspaper Novos Rumos, and in 1973 became founding pastor of Our Lady of Fatima in Elizabeth.
Monsignor Jeremias R. Rebanal organized the archdiocese’s Filipino Apostolate, worked with the Hispanic Apostolate, and mentored young Filipino priests. He was later made pastor of St. Aedan in Jersey City, the first Filipino pastor in that city.
A legacy that continues
Finally, Cardinal Tobin cautioned against letting remembrance “slip into mere nostalgia.”
“Let their memory be a catalyst,” he said. “We are still here. Our race has not yet finished. In our offices, in our parishes, in our families, let us take up the torch that they have passed to us.”
He also reminded worshippers that the men being remembered at the Mass “have not left us,” but “have simply gone ahead.”
Later that evening, at the archdiocese’s annual dinner for its deceased clergy, the faces of the departed appeared one by one on a memorial slideshow, from the oldest loss of the year to the most recent.
To further honor their memories, Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark has created an online memorial. Its centerpiece is an interactive rose window of 24 stained-glass petals, inspired by the “Great Rose” window of the Cathedral Basilica. Each petal represents one of the men remembered at the Mass. Select a petal, and the glass opens onto his photograph and story, framed like a cathedral window.
An interactive map traces where their ministry led them: from parishes across New Jersey to Ground Zero, the Persian Gulf, Rome, Portugal, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Visitors can sort the stories by the ways these men served, as pastors, browse photographs from the Mass, and light a virtual candle in memory of any of them.
To explore the stories of the 24 priests and deacons remembered at the annual Mass, visit the interactive memorial at rcancem.org/remembering-our-clergy-2026.
In Memoriam
The Archdiocese of Newark remembers the priests and deacons who died this year, listed by date of death.
Deacon Gary F. Tankard, April 29, 1939 – October 31, 2025
Msgr. Venantius M. Fernando, died November 15, 2025, age 89
Rev. Michael J. Sheehan, September 13, 1948 – November 17, 2025
Rev. Henry J. Schreitmueller, May 4, 1931 – December 17, 2025
Rev. John J. Spino Jr., June 9, 1935 – December 31, 2025
Msgr. João da Silva Antão, March 10, 1933 – January 15, 2026
Msgr. Jeremias R. Rebanal, February 5, 1930 – January 24, 2026
Rev. Richard D. Carlson, April 16, 1943 – January 31, 2026
Deacon Cesar A. Ortega, August 12, 1939 – February 12, 2026
Rev. Ronald R. Regula, January 18, 1942 – February 27, 2026
Deacon Joseph J. Nazzaro, August 30, 1930 – April 7, 2026
Rev. Donald E. Blumenfeld, September 5, 1953 – April 16, 2026
Deacon Robert V. Thomann, September 1, 1934 – April 19, 2026
Msgr. Lawrence J. Miller, died April 28, 2026, age 91
Rev. Peter A. Oddo, May 13, 1935 – May 4, 2026
Deacon Robert E. Thomson, November 24, 1940 – May 16, 2026
Rev. Robert G. Laferrera, October 5, 1949 – June 3, 2026
Rev. John R. Doherty, September 5, 1937 – June 10, 2026
Deacon Michael DeRoberts, November 6, 1955 – June 23, 2026
Deacon Alexander A. Ferrauiola, died July 21, 2026, age 79
Deacon Guy W. Mier, February 1, 1948 – August 10, 2026
Rev. Matthew L. Fonseka, died September 7, 2026, age 86
Deacon Richard McGarry, April 9, 1945 – September 11, 2026
Rev. Anthony R. Di Stefano, January 10, 1965 – October 14, 2026
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Featured image: Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.S.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, celebrated the annual Memorial Mass for Deceased Clergy on Oct. 27. (Photos by Rick Tracy)
