Father Gregory Rapisarda, revered for his accompaniment of the sick, dies at 78

Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Rabbi Avi Sharfman received a desperate call from the niece of a man dying in a Baltimore-area hospice. 

The man, who had arrived from Latin America before the pandemic, had no loved ones nearby and could speak with his family only through video calls. His one request, his niece said, was for a priest to administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick.

Rabbi Sharfman arranged for a priest, but when he canceled at the last moment, the rabbi turned to Father Gregory Rapisarda – a friend from their time together as hospital chaplains at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.

Father Rapisarda immediately jumped into his car and arrived at the dying stranger’s bedside within an hour. With the man’s family watching on Zoom, he conferred the sacrament, placed a rosary in the man’s hand and spent time in prayer. The man died soon after.

“Father Greg was always about people,” said Rabbi Sharfman, chaplain of Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital in Baltimore. “It was never about him – only what he could do for others.”

After battling cancer, Father Rapisarda died Dec. 10. He was 78.

Before his priestly ordination in 2010, Father Rapisarda earned a law degree from the University of Baltimore and spent 38 years as an attorney specializing in elder care. He and his wife, Carol Rapisarda, raised four children during nearly four decades of marriage. She died of cancer in 2006.

Then a permanent deacon at St. Margaret Parish in Bel Air, ordained in 2003, he discerned a call to the priesthood with the encouragement of then-Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien. He followed in the footsteps of his son, Father John Rapisarda, who had been ordained to the priesthood in 2008.

Father Gregory Rapisarda and Father John Rapisarda were the first father and son to serve as archdiocesan priests in the more than 220-year history of the Archdiocese of Baltimore – and the first father-son priests since Jesuit Fathers Virgil and Samuel Barber, who served the then-Diocese of Baltimore in the early 19th century.

Father John Rapisarda, now pastor of St. Mary in Pylesville, said his father was the primary “champion, caregiver and partner” to his mother throughout her illness.

“Dad cared for Mom because he loved her and loved being her husband,” he said. “The things that made him a great husband would later make him a great priest.”

Their priestly bond, Father John said, was “both powerful and normal.”

“Our conversations about ministry were story-sharing, problem-solving and reflection on the work of the Lord and the needs of the church,” he said. When they celebrated Mass or prayed the Divine Office together, he said, they often felt “the tremendous blessing of praying this way together, with all its uniqueness and cause for gratitude.”

Following his priestly ordination, Father Gregory Rapisarda served as associate pastor of St. Louis in Clarksville (2010-12), and beginning in 2012 at Our Lady of Hope, Dundalk; St. Luke, Edgemere; Our Lady of Fatima, Baltimore; and Sacred Heart of Mary, Graceland Park. He later returned to Our Lady of Hope and St. Luke as associate pastor until 2023, also serving as administrator in 2021-22. 

He served as Catholic chaplain at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for approximately a decade beginning in 2012, regularly visiting patients and using his legal expertise to serve on the hospital’s Ethics Committee. 

Rabbi Sharfman, who considered the priest his “second father,” said there are countless stories of Father Rapisarda’s ministry to the sick and dying. He remembered a call to the NICU at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where an infant facing risky surgery might not survive the night. Father Rapisarda hurried to the unit, reached a finger through the incubator and gently baptized the child. Five years later, while shopping, a man approached him. “Father Greg, do you remember me?” he asked. The priest did not. The man explained he was the father of the baby Father Rapisarda had baptized – and was buying supplies for her fifth birthday. 

In a 2024 interview, Father Gregory Rapisarda described health care ministry as a true calling. He recalled visiting a homeless burn patient at Bayview whose body was more than 70 percent covered in burns. The only place the priest could anoint him was the top of his foot. In another case, he helped reconcile a dying man’s estranged children. 

“That’s the gift of reconciliation,” he said. “It’s something that suffering can bring out in us.” 

Father T. Austin Murphy Jr., former pastor of Our Lady of Hope/St. Luke, noted that Father Rapisarda continued visiting the sick even after retiring in 2023. 

“He definitely just dove right into people’s lives and they were happy to have him there,” said Father Murphy, now pastor of Christ the King in Glen Burnie and St. Bernadette in Severn. “He had a joyful energy and he understood loss because he had experienced it himself.” 

His friend was a tender man, Father Murphy said, and was easily moved to tears. 

One of Father Rapisarda’s daughters, Joanna Herrera of St. Ursula Parish in Parkville, said her father made her five children feel at ease with their faith, encouraging them to participate fully at Mass and in prayer – and always making room for play. 

“He would talk to them about the readings of the day and then have a dancing competition,” she said. “His energy was just magnetic.” 

Shortly before his death, the grandfather of 10 told her the most important thing children could know was that Jesus loved them. “And he showed them that love through all he did for them and with them,” she said.

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

Arrangements

A visitation will be held Dec. 18, 6-8 p.m. and Dec. 19, 2-4 p.m. at Ruck Funeral Home in Towson, with a 7 p.m. wake service Dec. 19. A funeral Mass will be offered Dec. 20 at 11 a.m. at St. Margaret in Bel Air, preceded by a visitation 10-11 a.m. Archbishop William E. Lori will preside and Father John Rapisarda will give the homily. Donations in Father Rapisarda’s memory may be made to the Archdiocese of Baltimore or the Office of Vocations.

Journey to the priesthood

For nearly a year in 2009, the Catholic Review followed Father Gregory Rapisarda and two others who were preparing for the priesthood at St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park for a multi-part series on life in the seminary. Read the series below:

Part One: Seminarians embark on journey to the priesthood

Part Two: Seminarians face challenges in academics and pastoral work

Part Three: Sulpician formation guides future priests 

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