Rest in Peace, Fr. Javier Aracil, SDB

By Fr. Mike Mendl, SDB

Fr. Francis Xavier Aracil, almost always called Fr. Javier, died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y., at about 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18. He was 90 years old and had belonged to the Marian Shrine community of Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y., since 2018. He was a professed Salesian for 72 years and a priest for 61 years.

After a happy 90th birthday party in his community on September 13, he suffered a health setback and went to Willows Rehabilitation Center in Suffern in mid-October.

Javier was born at Alcoy (Alicante province), Spain, on September 4, 1934, to Baldomero and Concepcion Gosalbez Aracil. He was baptized three days later in the parish church, Santa Maria. He was confirmed at Maria Auxiliadora Shrine, also in Alcoy, the date not indicated.

The family included four boys and a girl: Anselmo, Baldomero, Jorge, Javier, and Inmaculada. They suffered a lot during the Spanish Civil War, including the arrest of Javier’s father and grandfather by the Communists and his having to go as an infant to another family for proper care for three years.

Javier enrolled in a Salesian school, San Vicente dels Horts, in Barcelona in 1948, and from there he was admitted to the novitiate at Arbos Del Panades (Barcelona) in 1951. The class numbered 39 at the beginning of 1952 (the elenco’s date), including Fr. Zosimo “José” Berruete.  (The other two provinces of Spain at that time also had novitiates full of novices.) During the novitiate, Javier applied to go to the missions.

Bro. Javier made his first religious profession at Arbos on August 16, 1952, and almost immediately departed for the United States. He enrolled at Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., on September 16 and graduated on June 12, 1955, with a B.A. in philosophy. His graduation classmates included Bros. Joe Berruete, Bill Fisher, Larry King, John O’Brien, Steve Reilly, Italo Rufo, and Don Zarkoski (among others).

Bro. Javier did three years of practical training at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. (1955-1958), teaching Latin, Spanish, and French. Since the school still had boarding students, he would also have assisted with study hall, dormitory, dining room, and recreation activities.

In 1958 Bro. Javier sailed to Rome for higher studies. He earned an additional bachelor’s degree in philosophy, cum laude, from the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum (PAS) in 1959, then undertook theology studies at the PAS in Turin (the “Crocetta”), where the professors included Frs. Eugenio Valentini, Agostino Favale, Antonio Javierre (future cardinal), Domenico Bertetto, Nazareno Camilleri, and Giuseppe Quadrio (now “venerable”), among others. At one point, he consulted Fr. Quadrio for vocational advice, and respected what the “very saintly man” told him.

One of his classmates was Bro. Bob Falk. 

Fr. Javier was ordained in the basilica of Mary Help of Christians on February 11, 1963, and was awarded an STL in 1963, cum laude.

Fr. Javier began his priestly ministry at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y., teaching Spanish and religion to sophomores and juniors (1963-1964). The next year he became catechist at Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, N.Y., and taught U.S. history and health. Incoming freshman Jim Howe was impressed: “On our first evening in Goshen, the new catechist played guitar and sang ‘500 Miles’—in retrospect, maybe a sad choice for homesick youngsters. But we were thrilled, and felt a new era was beginning for both us and the seminary. And we all soon became folksingers. Fr. Javier became a kind friend and mentor to me then, and later at Newton, where he taught education courses. He took my freshman college class on visits to Columbia and Princeton universities. The latter trip included a BBQ at my parents’ home in Edison, N.J. They clearly saw what made him special to us.”

Another freshman that year, Ed Lord, found several things special about Fr. Javier: “Fr. Javier was our freshman Latin teacher. I served at his morning Mass several times, and I remember his great sense of the presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. I also remember his care of those of us who came down with the flu that winter. I especially remember his treating us when we picked up poison ivy in Fr. Don’s rose garden! He had a wonderful sense of humor and a kind word when we struggled with declensions.”

Joe DiStefano was a member of Goshen’s Class of 1967 and later served on the board of the St. Philip the Apostle Foundation. He remembers “Fr. Aracil as a very humble, friendly and peaceful man…. I sat with him at some of the St. Philip meetings in New Rochelle years ago and always enjoyed his company.”

Despite being special in Goshen, Fr. Javier was transferred in 1965 to the other junior seminary in the area, Don Bosco Technical Institute in Haverstraw, for coadjutor aspirants and postnovitiate brothers. He served as catechist, Spanish and health teacher, and guidance counselor (1965-1968). In this period, he also completed an M.S. in education at Fordham University (1967). Later, he earned a professional diploma in counselor education from Fordham (1974).

Fr. Javier moved to East Boston in 1968 for two years at St. Dominic Savio High School as catechist, guidance counselor, and Latin and religion teacher. He gradually attained teaching certification in New York and Massachusetts in several subjects and guidance certification in both states.

He moved up to Don Bosco College in Newton in 1970 as academic dean, also teaching education, till 1973. Former Salesian Bob Ferrara remembers Fr. Javier “as a quiet man who observed more than he opined on—another lesson for us all. He served diligently as academic dean at Don Bosco College. In his way, he enhanced the education received by many.” 

Another former Salesian, Bill Moriarty, appreciated him a bit differently: “Fr. Javier was good to me at DBC. He tolerated my insolence over classes I couldn’t stand and allowed me to take virtually every course in which I had an interest. Virtually. Without taking Fr. Villar’s first year Spanish course, I challenged the final exam. With a ‘B’ firmly in hand, I asked Fr. Javier if I could enter the second-year Spanish course. He looked at me with what I think was a slight smile and just said, ‘No. You have to take Spanish I to take Spanish II.’”

In 1973 his ministry shifted primarily to parish work, first at Mary Help of Christians in Manhattan; his apostolate was mainly among the many Hispanics of the East Village. His introduction to New York City included being held up in Tompkins Square Park, along with Fr. DeBlase, one evening in the summer of 1973.

After five years at Mary Help, Fr. Javier took a sabbatical year in Madrid. Returning to the province in 1979, he undertook the Spanish apostolate in Boston, also teaching religion and offering guidance at Don Bosco Tech. Ministry to Hispanics included not only sacramental life and counseling, but also assistance with immigration matters and youth rallies like one at Don Bosco on June 4, 1983 (covered in The Pilot, June 10). That service lasted five years.

A much longer period of service followed, 1984-1996, when the Salesians accepted St. Kieran Parish and Immaculata-LaSalle High School in Miami. He continued offering Spanish ministry and school guidance; he was director for nine years (1987-1996) and pastor for four (1992-1996). When the present writer was serving as a pastor on Grand Bahama Island in 1994, he appreciated Fr. Javier’s warm hospitality for monthly days of recollection at St. Kieran.

Fr. Javier continued Hispanic ministry when he moved back north to St. Anthony’s Parish in Elizabeth, N.J., as an assistant pastor. But after only one year (1996-1997), he was called to New Rochelle as province secretary and a member of the provincial council (1997-2003). In that time he assisted with Spanish ministry at St. Gabriel’s Church in New Rochelle.

In the mid-2000s, Fr. Javier took part in the multi-tiered Salesianity program offered at the Salesian Regional Formation Center in Quito with dozens of Salesians and laity from the Americas. He found it very enriching personally, vocationally, and ecclesially. He fostered the translation and printing of Getting to Know Don Bosco: An Introductory Study of the Life of Saint John Bosco by a couple of the Center’s professors, Fr. Fernando, Peraza, SDB, and Jorge Garcia.

Following two terms on the provincial council, Fr. Javier returned in 2003 to Mary Help of Christians in Manhattan for four years of Hispanic ministry. When the archdiocese closed the parish in 2007, he moved back across the Hudson to Elizabeth as assistant pastor for another four years. The next two years (2011-2013) found him in Port Chester, N.Y., as an assistant pastor, one year at Corpus Christi Church, then one at Holy Rosary Church. He was posted back to Elizabeth in 2013, just in time for the Salesians’ withdrawal from the parish the following year.

By now a senior priest, 80 years old, Fr. Javier was assigned in 2014 to the Don Bosco Residence in Orange, N.J., to help at Our Lady of the Valley Parish and help form young Salesians and candidates. After suffering a stroke, he moved to the senior residence at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw. He continued to offer his services as a confessor as much as possible at both the shrine chapel and the retreat house, and he took part in province celebrations as often as he could.

Fr. Javier’s last director, Fr. Manny Gallo, had known him from childhood in Miami. He writes: “Fr. Francis Xavier Aracil was an amazing Salesian priest! He spent hours in the confessional here at the Shrine, and we thank God for his vocation. Fr. Francis and I were very close, and I am heartbroken to have lost a man that I looked up to since I was a kid. He was the one that gave me my first Communion, and I was always proud to say that every time we were together with other people.”

Former rector major Fr. Pascual Chavez writes of his “great appreciation” of Fr. Javier’s “goodness, generosity, Salesian identity, and missionary soul.”

Fr. Javier is survived by his brother Jorge Aracil Gosalbez of Madrid, and a niece, Maria Emilia Ferrandiz of Alcoy, Spain.

Fr. Javier was waked at the Marian Shrine on the afternoon of Saturday, December 21, with the funeral Mass following at 4:00 p.m.  Fr. Dominic Tran, provincial, presided.  Fr. Patrick Angelucci preached. He was buried in the Salesian Cemetery at Goshen on December 23.

Read the original obituary with photos.