Msgr. Jeffrey Conway, Administrator of St. Patrick’s, Staten Island

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Msgr. Jeffrey P. Conway, administrator of St. Patrick’s parish on Staten Island, where he previously had served as pastor, died peacefully Aug. 6. He was 74.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated Saturday, Aug. 13, at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick’s on Staten Island. Cardinal Dolan will be the celebrant, and Father Joseph McLafferty, pastor of St. Kateri Tekakwitha parish in LaGrangeville and dean of Dutchess County, will deliver the homily.

A Requiem Mass will be offered Friday, Aug. 12, at 7 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church on Staten Island, with Auxiliary Bishop Peter Byrne as the celebrant. Father Robert Norris, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Elmsford, will deliver the homily. 

Msgr. Conway, who was appointed administrator of St. Patrick’s July 1, was pastor of the Richmondtown parish, 2015-2022. He had also served the parish as administrator, 2014-2015, and parochial vicar, 1977-1987. 

  He also served as pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Staten Island, 1993-2014, and St. Paul, Staten Island, 1989-1993.

Msgr. Conway and Father McLafferty met when the two served together at Our Lady Star of the Sea, from 1994 to 1998. Msgr. Conway had a vision to build a bigger church to meet the growing parish population, and the two worked together in the planning stages of the new church.

“He was very dedicated,” Father McLafferty said. “He had a vision of what a parish priest should be and was faithful to that vision.” 

Father McLafferty spent some time talking with Msgr. Conway at a baptism party on Staten Island July 24.

“We had a nice chat,” Father McLafferty said. “Looking back on it now, I was grateful for that time. I’ll miss his conversations and support.”

Msgr. Conway was administrator of Sacred Heart of Jesus, Manhattan, 1987-1989, and parochial vicar of St. Joseph, Croton Falls, 1973-1976. He also served on the faculty of Cardinal Spellman High School, the Bronx, 1976-1977.

Born in Yonkers, he studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie. He was ordained by Cardinal Terence Cooke at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1973 and was named a monsignor in 1995.

Burial will take place in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne.