By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Father Joseph Angelini died in Massachusetts on November 4, 2004. He had served as pastor of Visitation Parish in North Miami for ten years before retiring in 2002. He was a priest in the Archdiocese of Miami for more than 30 years.
“He was a faithful man. He enjoyed being a priest,” said Jeannett Carter, a longtime parishioner of Visitation for more than 60 years.
Photographer: FILE PHOTO
Father Joseph Angelini: Born January 21, 1930; ordained June 3, 1967; November 4, 2004.
‘He had a sense of humor, sometimes,” she added.
Carter, a retired kindergarten teacher, was an active volunteer at the parish during that time. Father Angelini “was a good priest,” Carter said, explaining that Father Angelini went through hard times when he arrived at the church, including the closing of the parish school in 1989, a few years before his arrival.
“He did what he thought was best (for the church),” Carter said.
“He took very good care of the finances of the parish,” Carter noted, recalling that when Father Christopher Marino, actual rector of St. Mary Star of the Sea Basilica in Key West, took over Visitation Parish, “he stated that ‘the parish was left in a stable position,’” said Cheryl Thornhill, secretary of Visitation Parish.
Thornhill was a parishioner and a volunteer lector at that time. She and her family began attending Visitation in 1981. She remembers Father Angelini as “a very spiritual and quiet person.”
After Father Angelini retired, he served at several other parishes, noted Carter.
Father Angelini was born on January 21, 1930, in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The son of Germano and Margherita Angelini, he studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst before entering St. John Provincial Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan. He was ordained to the priesthood June 3, 1967, for the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan.
After ordination, Father Angelini served at St. John Vianney Parish in Flint, Michigan. He came to the Archdiocese of Miami in 1969 and was assigned as parochial vicar at St. Augustine Church in Coral Gables (1969-71); St. Joan of Arc, Boca Raton (1971-78); Holy Name of Jesus, West Palm Beach (1978-79); and St. Clare, North Palm Beach (1979-83). He served as director of campus ministry at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, from 1971 to 1978.
He served as pastor of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Fort Lauderdale, from 1983 to 1989. He also served as chaplain for the Knights of Columbus in Riviera Beach (1980-83) and the Catholic Daughters of America in Fort Lauderdale (1984). After a sabbatical year (1989-90), he was appointed parochial vicar at St. Joachim in South Miami Heights (1990-91). In 1991, he became administrator and in 1992 pastor of Visitation Parish in North Miami, where he served until his retirement from full-time ministry in 2002.
Funeral Services
- Viewing will be held in Massachusetts at Campbell Funeral Home, 525 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA, on Thursday, November 14, 2024, from 4 – 7 p.m.
- A funeral Mass with Miami Auxiliary Bishop, Enrique Delgado presiding, will be celebrated on Friday, November 15, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. at St John the Evangelist Church, 111 New Balch Street, Beverly, MA.
