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Father Peter C. Scaramuzzo, who served as parochial vicar at six parishes in the archdiocese, died July 29 at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn. He was 82.
Cardinal Dolan offered a Funeral Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church in West Harrison, where Father Scaramuzzo served from 1994 until his retirement in 2014.
Father Richard A. LaMorte, a retired priest of the archdiocese who now assists at St. Joseph and Immaculate Conception parish in Millbrook on weekends, delivered the homily. He first met Father Scaramuzzo at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, in August 1960 when both began studies for the priesthood there.
Father Scaramuzzo was “perfect for parish ministry, no matter where, no matter who; Peter would give of himself as much as he could,” Father LaMorte said.
“Peter loved helping people, pure and simple,” and he approached them “with a humility and openness that showed them his sincerity as a person traveling the same road as they were,” Father LaMorte said.
Nowhere was Father Scaramuzzo’s priestly service more apparent than at his final assignment at St. Anthony of Padua parish in West Harrison.
“The love and loyalty that Peter always had for his family inspired his service of the ‘family’ of St. Anthony,” Father LaMorte said. “He was a father who became a brother who left as a grandfather or uncle.”
Father Scaramuzzo also served at SS. Peter and Paul, Mount Vernon, 1984-1994; St. Frances de Chantal, the Bronx, 1981-1984; St. Thomas of Canterbury, Cornwall-on-Hudson, 1977-1981; St. Stanislaus, Pleasant Valley, 1975-1977; and Our Lady of the Angels, the Bronx, 1966-1975.
He lived in Westerly, R.I., in retirement.
Born in Yonkers, he attended Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx. He was ordained by Cardinal Francis Spellman at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1966.
Father Scaramuzzo is survived by four brothers, Vincent, Anthony, John and Louis.
Burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Yonkers.
