Fr. Joseph Gurdak, OFM Cap.

The Capuchin Franciscan friars of the Province of St. Mary mourn the death of their brother, Fr. Joseph Gurdak, OFM Cap., who passed from this life on Tuesday morning, May 6, 2025, in New York City at the age of eighty-one.

Our brother was born in Yonkers, N.Y., on Aug. 12, 1943, to Joseph R. Gurdak and Catherine Farrell. He entered the novitiate on Aug. 31, 1962, professed his perpetual vows on Sept. 1, 1966, and was ordained to the priesthood on Sept. 12, 1970.

Father Joe spent 15 years in Central America, mainly in Honduras, from 1975 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1994. He served in parochial ministry as a pastor and in formation as a director of novices. For one term, from 1985 to 1988, he was the vice provincial minister of what is today the Custody of Our Lady of Hope (El Salvador-Guatemala-Honduras).

He returned permanently to the United States in 1994. After four years at Holy Spirit Church in Lake Wales, Fla., he moved to Our Lady of Sorrows in New York City, where he served as pastor until 2005. In 2006 he became the pastor and guardian at St. Anne-St. Augustin Parish and Friary in Manchester, N.H., a multicultural, multi-ethnic congregation that ministers to the city’s African, Latino, and Vietnamese communities. Father Joe was a tireless defender of Manchester’s immigrant and refugee population, and he built bridges between the Irish and French-Canadian Catholics who were the historic core of the parish and present-day immigrants.

In 2017, Father Joe fell into a coma while attending a retreat with his Capuchin brothers. He spent the next six months in recuperation before returning to St. Anne-St. Augustin. Relieved of his pastoral duties, he moved to Our Lady of Sorrows in May 2020 and then to St. Clare Friary in Yonkers that November. He remained there until moving into hospice care a month before his death. Fr. Joseph was survived by his sister, Sister Mary Carol, CSA, Fond du Lac, WI and two cousins.

A wake will be held on Friday, May 9, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Whalen & Ball Funeral Home, 168 Park Avenue, Yonkers, N.Y. The funeral will be celebrated on Saturday, May 10, at 11 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church, Yonkers, N.Y. In place of flowers, donations can be made to the Province of St. Mary in memory of Fr. Joseph Gurdak in support of the continued good works of the Capuchin Franciscan friars. You can send your donations to the Capuchin Mission & Development Office, 110 Shonnard Place, Yonkers, NY 10703.