Father Francis J. Lombardo, OFM Conv. 1934-2025

Father Francis Lombardo, OFM Conv., a Franciscan Friar of the Our Lady of the Angels Province, died peacefully on Tuesday, Apr. 8, 2025. 

Born in Buffalo on Dec. 24, 1934, he was one of the five children of the late Joseph and Mary (Carriero) Lombardo. He is survived by his brothers, Fred and Thomas, and his sister, Paula.  

Father Lombardo graduated from Grover Cleveland High School and then earned a bachelor of science degree in Speech and Hearing Correction from the New York State College of Education at Buffalo. He began teaching at St. Francis High School in Athol Springs in 1964, where he met the Franciscans.

Inspired by their common life, Father Lombardo entered the novitiate of the Conventual Franciscans in Ellicott City, Maryland, making his simple profession of vows on Aug. 15, 1966. He finished a master’s degree in Speech Pathology from Penn State University, before professing solemn vows on Aug. 15, 1969. After completing his master’s in Theology at St. Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary in Rensselaer, he was ordained to the priesthood on May 22, 1971, in Albany.

Father Lombardo’s first assignment was to the teaching apostolate at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore, where he taught English for five years. From 1976-79, he was spiritual director and director of Brothers’ Formation at St. Hyacinth College and Seminary in Granby, Massachusetts. From 1979-82, he returned to St. Anthony-on-Hudson, serving as director of Brothers’ Formation, director of the Deacon Internship Program, and associate director of Clerics. He then spent 15 years as a pastor, ministering at St. Anne and Holy Cross Parishes in Hooversville, Pennsylvania. (1982-84), Most Holy Trinity Parish in Brooklyn, where he was the first Franciscan pastor (1984-88), and St. Edward the Confessor Parish in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, where he was again the first Franciscan pastor (1988-97). From 1997-2001, Father Lombardo worked with the Companions of St. Anthony in Ellicott City, before moving back to his native Western New York where he spent the remainder of his life as a preaching friar, parochial vicar at St. Gregory the Great Parish in Williamsville, and finally in retirement.

Visitation hours will be held Wednesday, Apr. 23, from 4-7 p.m., at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church (4263 St. Francis Drive, Hamburg), with a Franciscan Wake Service at 7 p.m. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Francis on Thursday, Apr. 24, at 11 a.m.  Interment will follow in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Cheektowaga.