Msgr. John J. Demkovich

Msgr. John J. Demkovich, 84, who faithfully served as a priest with the Diocese of Paterson for fifty-three years, passed away peacefully on August 1, 2018.
Msgr. Demkovich served as Pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Passaic for 40 years, from 1971 to 2011 and was named Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary's by Bishop Arthur Serratelli upon his retirement on Aug. 15, 2011. He was a Synodal Judge in the diocesan Marriage Tribunal since 1968 and had also served as its Secretary. Msgr. Demkovich served as Diocesan Pilgrimage Director for the pilgrimages to the National Shrine in Washington, D.C. from 1973 to 2011 and was Diocesan Director for the Eucharistic Congress, Associate Director for the World Apostolate of Fatima and part-time Director of the Apostleship of Prayer and the Priests' Eucharistic League. Since 1992, he had served as Director of the Diocesan Mission Office and over the years had won many national honors from the Catholic Press Association and the Propagation of the Faith for his bi-weekly column in The Beacon about missionaries. St. Pope John Paul II named him a monsignor in 1989.
A native of New Brunswick, he was graduated from New Brunswick High School in 1951. When he was in his second year as chemistry major at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, he decided to pursue the priesthood and was accepted as a seminarian by the Trenton Diocese. He studied for three years at the former Christ the King Seminary, N.Y., receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy. However, health problems surfaced which caused the Trenton Diocese to drop him from its seminarian program. He then taught in the Somerville Public School system until 1961, when he began studying to be a member of the Missionaries of Africa (the White Fathers), entering their novitiate in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., followed by three years of study at their Scholasticate in Ottawa, Canada. A year before his scheduled ordination, health problems again arose which prohibited him from being ordained to serve as a missionary priest.
In 1964, after working as a volunteer in the White Fathers office in Washington, D.C., he applied to Bishop James Navagh for the Paterson Diocese and was accepted as a seminarian and finished his diaconate year at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He was ordained a priest of the Paterson Diocese on May 29, 1965, in St. Philip Church, Clifton, by Bishop James Navagh. After his ordination, his first assignment was at St. Margaret Parish, Morristown, followed by assignments at Holy Trinity Parish, Passaic; St. Mary Parish, Denville; and as a teacher at Morris Catholic High School there and at the former Bayley-Ellard High School, Madison. He was named pastor of St. Mary's in Passaic in 1971.
He was Spiritual Director of the Passaic-Clifton District Council of Catholic Women until it disbanded in 2014 and of the Paterson Curia of the Legion of Mary. Msgr. Demkovich had also been involved in the healing ministry of Charismatic Renewal and offered healing Masses once a month at St. Mary's and often at other churches. Additionally, he was a former Chaplain of Assembly 1 of the Slovak Catholic Sokol in Passaic and an Associate Chaplain of Assembly 162 of the Slovak Catholic Sokol in Clifton.
Msgr. Demkovich was also a gifted musician who had been a member of Musicians' Union Local 248 since 1973. He often entertained at parish functions and diocesan events playing the accordion, keyboard and guitar.
His father, John J.; his mother, Ida, and a sister, Evelyn Ida, predeceased him.
Reception of the body Thursday August 2, 2018 at 2 pm with wake to immediately follow from 2-8 pm at St. Mary's Assumption Roman Catholic Church, 181 Market Street, Passaic. The funeral for Msgr. Demkovich will be celebrated on Friday, August 3, 2018 at 10:00 am with interment at St. Mary's Cemetery, Saddle Brook. Arrangements through Bizub-Quinlan Funeral Home, 515 Lexington Avenue, Clifton.