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Father Joseph F. Bisignano Jr., who had served as pastor of St. Theresa in Briarcliff Manor since 2018, died Feb. 13. He was 71.
Father Bisignano also served as pastor of St. Patrick, Bedford, 2016-2018; St. Patrick, Yorktown Heights, 2005-2016; St. Joachim and St. John the Evangelist, Beacon, 2004-2005; and St. John the Evangelist, Beacon, 1995-2004.
A Mass of Christ the High Priest was offered Feb. 19 at St. Patrick’s Church, Yorktown Heights, with retired Auxiliary Bishop Dominick Lagonegro as the principal celebrant. Father Gaetano Sbordone, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini in Brooklyn, delivered the homily.
A Funeral Mass was celebrated Feb. 20 at St. Patrick’s Church, Yorktown Heights, with Cardinal Dolan as principal celebrant and Father Anthony Sorgie, pastor of Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Our Lady in Tuckahoe, as homilist.
Father Bisignano and Father Sorgie first met in 1974. “He loved the liturgy,” said Father Sorgie in his homily. “He loved the Eucharist. He never went a day without celebrating it, most of his parishes multiple times a day.
“It was the center of his priesthood, the center of his life.”
Father Bisignano served as administrator of St. Joachim, Beacon, 2000-2004, and St. John the Evangelist, Beacon, 1995.
He was parochial vicar of St. Columba, Hopewell Junction, 1993-1995; St. Clare of Assisi, the Bronx, 1990-1993; Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Elmsford, 1984-1990; and St. Joseph, Kingston, 1981-1984.
Born in Mount Vernon, he studied for the priesthood at Cathedral College, Douglaston, and St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie. He was ordained at St. Patrick’s Cathedral by Cardinal Terence Cooke in 1981.
His brothers, Frank and James, survive him. Burial was in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne.
