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Father Lionel A. Bouffard, M.M., a missioner to Africa, died July 9 at St. Teresa’s Residence in Ossining. He was 81.
Following his ordination in 1963, he was assigned to Tanzania, East Africa, where he served at a parish and as a high school chaplain near Dar es Salaam until 1978. He moved to western Kenya, where he was a teacher and chaplain at a Catholic high school. In 1985 he became a chaplain and lecturer at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, serving there until 1990.
In 1988 Father Bouffard, who spoke four European and two East African languages, served as Pan-American chaplain of the Pax Romana International Movement of Catholic Students. He inspired students to put their faith into practice through social activism. His students visited slums, tutored disadvantaged children and worked in refugee camps in Zambia.
He was director of the Maryknoll House of Prayer in Lourdes, France, from 1998 to 2008.
Born in Warren, R.I., he entered Maryknoll in 1953 after serving for four years in the U.S. Air Force. He professed final vows in 1962. He studied for the priesthood at Maryknoll Seminary in Ossining.
His brothers, Gerald and Maurice, and sisters, Irene Bouffard, Jeanne Munro and Yvette Vollaro, survive him.
A Funeral Mass was offered July 13 at Queen of Apostles Chapel, Ossining, followed by burial in the Maryknoll Society Cemetery.
