Thursday, August 1, 2019

Fr. Donald Delaney, SDB (1946-2019)

Fr. Donald Delaney, SDB (1946-2019)

Fr. Donald Michael Delaney, SDB, died on Tuesday morning, July 30, Bayshore Pointe Nursing and Rehab in Tampa. He’d been seriously ill for quite some time and was in hospice care.

Fr. Don, 73, was a member of the Salesian community at Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa, living at St. Philip the Apostle Residence for elder and infirm confreres from July 2018 until about a week before he entered eternity.

Fr. Don was born on March 31, 1946, in Flushing, Queens, N.Y., the son of Mary Gleason and William Delaney.  He entered Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., upon graduating from high school in 1964 and was admitted to the novitiate there the following year.  He made his first profession of vows on August 16, 1966, and his perpetual profession six years later. That same year he began theological studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, and he was ordained in Westerville, Ohio, on April 24, 1976.

Fr. Don exercised his priestly ministry in schools and parishes of the province and at Salesian Missions in New Rochelle.  He made an attempt to serve as a missionary in Africa but fell ill and had to return to the States. With a philosophical bent, he was orderly, intelligent, and witty.

Fr. Franco Pinto, director of our Tampa community, requested prayers for the repose of Fr. Don and for his family, friends, and confreres.

An initial Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Mary Help of Christians on August 2, with a wake the preceding evening.  

A second wake will be observed at the Marian Shrine chapel in Haverstraw, N.Y., on Sunday afternoon, August 4, followed by another Mass of Christian Burial at 6:30 p.m.

Fr. Don will be buried in the Salesian Cemetery at Goshen, N.Y., on Monday, August 5.

No comments: