Retired Deacon Ministered to the Sick

A Mass of Christian Burial for Deacon Frank Rosati, a retired permanent deacon of the diocese, was celebrated Aug. 6 at St. Athanasius Church, Bensonhurst. He died Aug. 3 at age 89.

Deacon Rosati

Born in Brooklyn, he attended PS 112, Our Lady of Guadalupe School, and New Utrecht H.S. He worked as an administrative assistant for the New York City Transit Authority and was a Benedictine Oblate.

Ordained a deacon Dec. 3, 1977, he was a member of the first class of permanent deacons ordained for the diocese by Bishop Francis J. Mugavero.

He served at St. Athanasius parish and through Catholic Charities’ Office of Pastoral Care of the Sick, he also was a chaplain at Holy Family Home, a long-term care facility in Bensonhurst.

“Most of his ministry over the last 30 years was at the Holy Family Home. He and his wife went there together,” said Deacon Dante Colandrea of St. Athanasius.

Burial was in St. Charles Cemetery, Farmingdale.
He is survived by his wife Evelyn, their five children: John, Anthony, Mary Sciaraffo, Anne Marie Bucchignano, and Robert, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

French Cardinal, 80, Was Born Jewish

Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the Jewish-born former archbishop of Paris who defended the right of believers to have a say in public debates, died at the age of 80.

Cardinal Lustiger

He had been the voice of French Catholics for nearly a quarter-century and spoke out against anti-Semitism, as well as promoted Catholic dialogue with Jews and with the nation’s growing Muslim community.
He died Aug. 5 in Paris after a long illness. The funeral was held Aug. 10 at the French capital’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

His death leaves the College of Cardinals with 182 members, of whom 105 are under the age of 80 and therefore are eligible to vote in a conclave.

Pope Benedict XVI called the cardinal a “perceptive intellectual” and “passionate pastor” who “put his gifts at the service of the faith” in order to bring the Gospel to all aspects of life and society.

The cardinal, who converted to Catholicism from Judaism as a teenager, was the Vatican representative at the 2005 commemoration in Poland of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where his Jewish mother died. The first time he visited Auschwitz was in 1983, when he accompanied Pope John Paul II there.

To remember the Holocaust and ensure that nothing like it was ever repeated, he said that “moral conscience must become educated” so that people “identify good with life and evil with death.”

The cardinal worked hard to improve Catholic-Jewish relations. In October 1998, the New York-based Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding gave him its “Nostra Aetate” award, named for the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on relations with other religions.

Never shy about discussing his Jewish past – he once told reporters he still considered himself to be a Jew and had a “dual affiliation” – Cardinal Lustiger received considerable media attention, which he used to promote interfaith dialogue.

Born in Paris Sept. 17, 1926, to Polish Jews who had emigrated to France, he was given the name Aaron. His family did not practice its faith, but paid for its Jewish identity with the loss of several members during the Holocaust.
The cardinal was spared, however, because a Catholic family in Orleans, France, sheltered him and his sister during the war. In 1940, at age 14, he was baptized and took the name Jean-Marie.

Mary Elias, Pro-Life Advocate

Mary J. Elias, a founder of the New York Life Center, Brooklyn, (originally Mother and Unborn Baby Love, Inc.) died July 28 after a brief illness. She was 85.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated July 31 at Our Lady of Angels Church, Bay Ridge.

She served on the board of the life center for 23 years. She was employed for 45 years by Duffy-Mott Co., her last title being manager of employee benefits.

She is survived by her brother Arthur Elias of Denville, N.J.

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