Buttino

Father James V. Buttino, M.M.

Posted

Father James V. Buttino, M.M., a missioner to Taiwan and China for more than half a century, died on July 6 at the Maryknoll Residence in Los Altos, Calif. He was 89. After his ordination for Maryknoll in 1947, he served as assistant pastor in Wuchow, South China. Accused by the Communist government of being an American spy, he was imprisoned in 1951 and eventually expelled from the country. He served for a year at Transfiguration parish in Manhattan and was assigned to Taiwan where he served as pastor of six different parishes over the next 50 years until his retirement in 2003. He supervised the construction of two church structures and three convents. Born in Cortland, he entered Maryknoll in 1937 and studied for the priesthood at the Maryknoll Minor Seminary in Clarks Summit, Pa., and Maryknoll Seminary in Ossining. He is survived by his sisters, Sister M. James Vincent Buttino, O.S.F., of Kingston, Jamaica, and Elisa Buttino; and his brothers, Joseph and Louis. A Funeral Mass was offered July 9 at the Maryknoll Residence in Los Altos, followed by burial at Maryknoll Cemetery there.

Buttino