Fr. Joseph William Bayne, Jr., OFM Conv., 66, a Franciscan Friar Conventual of Our Lady of the Angels Province, died on Friday, June 23, 2023, in Chicago.
Born in Baltimore, Md., on March 15, 1957, he was a son of the late + Joseph William Sr. (1977) and Jean (nee Gorman) Bayne. He is survived by his mother and younger brother, George.
Fr. Joe, as he known by so many, was a graduate of Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore, where he first encountered the Franciscan community, he would join after graduation in 1975. Completing his Novitiate in Ellicott City, Md., he professed Simple Vows on August 15, 1976. He completed his undergraduate degree at St. Hyacinth College and Seminary in Granby, Mass., earning a BA in Philosophy in 1980. After professing Solemn Vows on August 15, 1981, Friar Joseph studied at St. Anthony-on-Hudson in Rensselaer, N.Y., where he earned his M.Div degree before being ordained to the Priesthood on March 25, 1985.
From 1985-1989, Fr. Joe began his priestly ministry in Shamokin, Penn., where he served as Parochial Vicar of St. Stephen Parish and then St. Stanislaus Parish.
In 1989, Fr. Joe moved to Buffalo, where he began a 29-year ministry at The Franciscan Center, a transitional housing program for runaway and homeless young men from Western New York. The Center served more than 4,000 young men before closing its doors in 2018. For thirteen of his years in Buffalo, Fr. Joe served as Chaplain of Erie County Emergency Services and the Buffalo Fire Department, often known by his call number, ES-11.
In 2018, Fr. Joseph was reassigned to Chicopee, Mass., where he served briefly as Pastor of St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr Parish and Chaplain of the city fire department, before accepting the responsibility of becoming the Associate Director of Formation at the Conventual Franciscans’ Postulancy house in Chicago. This ministry to young men in their first year of formation as friars was very much a reprisal of his years at The Franciscan Center.
Visitation hours will be held Sunday, July 2, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Church of the Annunciation (5212 McCormick Avenue, Baltimore Md., 21206), with a Franciscan Wake Service at 7 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday, July 3, at 11:00 a.m., in the Church of the Annunciation, followed by internment in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Baltimore.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated in Buffalo, on Saturday, July 15 at 10:00 a.m., in St. Joseph Cathedral (50 Franklin Street, Buffalo N.Y., 14202).
