Death notices, week of July 27, 2024

Father Gerald Joseph Fitzsimmons, SMMformer pastor of St. Mary Gate of Heaven Parish, Ozone Park, died July 19 after a battle with ALS. He was 76.

He was born and raised in St. Teresa of Avila Parish, South Ozone Park, and attended high school at Montfort Seminary, Bay Shore. He then entered the Montfort Novitiate in Hartford City, Indiana, where he professed his vows on August 15, 1967.

He received his bachelor’s degree and Master of Divinity from St. Louis University and was ordained as a Montfort priest on February 22, 1975. He served at Infant Jesus Parish in Port Jefferson, LI from 1974 to 1979 and at St. Mary Gate of Heaven in Ozone Park from 1981 to 1986. He served as pastor of St. Mary Gate of Heaven from 2009 to 2018.

A message on the St. Mary Gate of Heaven Parish website read in part: “Father Fitz, as he was affectionately known, was an integral part of St. Mary Gate of Heaven throughout his priesthood. Father Fitz’s passion was to prepare parents and students for the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation. Many of the activities we continue to do today began with Father Fitz. He will be missed and remembered by many parishioners past and present.”

Father Fitzsimmons also spent time as a parish missions and retreat minister, traveling and preaching throughout the country. From 1993 to 2006, he was provincial superior of the Montfort Missionaries in the U.S. For many years, he worked with victims of clergy abuse both nationally and internationally.

He is survived by his sister, Margaret McAlvannah, and her family, his brothers and sisters in the Montfortian Family, and the extraordinary number of people whose lives Father Fitz touched in his nearly 50 years as a priest.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Wednesday, July 24, at Sacred Heart Chapel of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood. Burial was in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Bay Shore, LI