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Father Patrick Diver, S.D.B., former pastor of Mary Help of Christians parish in Manhattan and a missioner to the Philippines, died Aug. 6 at Father Hudson House, a hospice in Elizabeth, N.J. He was 68 and had been suffering from cancer.
He served at Mary Help of Christians, 1997-1998. He also served as director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, 1998-2002, where he coordinated fund-raising to support Salesian missionary activities around the world.
After volunteering for foreign missions, he went to the Philippines in 1967 where he taught at Don Bosco Academy in Pampanga until 1970. He also served as dean of students at Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., 1974-1976, and as a teacher and administrator for 21 years in Salesian schools in East Boston, Mass.; Tampa, Fla.; and Paterson, N.J. He served in parishes in Washington, D.C.; Leeds, Ala.; and Elizabeth, N.J.
Born in Boston, he entered Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., in 1961 and professed vows in 1963. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1974. He held master’s degrees in guidance and counseling from De La Salle College, Manila, and in theology from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio.
Two sisters, Kathleen Tubman and Maureen Fitzgerald, survive him.
A Funeral Mass was offered at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Elizabeth Aug. 9. He was buried in his family’s plot in Newton, Mass.
