Fr. Thomas Provenzano, SDB: Port Chester priest and vicar

July 26, 2023 at 10:11 p.m.

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Updated July 26, 2023 at 10:11 p.m.

Fr. Thomas M. Provenzano died unexpectedly July 21, 2023 in his room in the Salesian residence of St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester. He was 56 years old and had been a professed Salesian of Don Bosco for more than 29 years and a priest for over 21 years. He was parochial vicar in the parish and vice director in the Salesian community.

According to Fr. Pat Angelucci, director and pastor, Fr. Tom’s alarm went off at 6 a.m. and he got up to turn it off. When he did not come to celebrate the 8 a.m. Mass, Fr. Pat went to his room and found him lying on the floor; he had died of a massive heart attack. The evening before, he engaged in lively table conversation with his confreres, heard confessions, and taped an upcoming talk on the Eucharist.

Tom Provenzano was born Mar. 18, 1967, in Bronxville, N.Y., the youngest of Anthony and Edythe Volpe Provenzano’s four sons. He was baptized at Immaculate Conception Church in Tuckahoe, N.Y., the family’s parish, within a month of his birth and confirmed there in 1980. He attended Salesian High School in New Rochelle, graduating in 1985, then spent three years at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Although he admired the Salesians’ “great sense of camaraderie,” he entered the New York Archdiocese’s candidacy program for the priesthood in 1988. As a diocesan candidate, he completed a B.A. in philosophy at Iona College in New Rochelle in 1991.

But Don Bosco staked a claim on Tom, and in January 1992 he entered the Salesian formation program at South Orange, N.J. In August that year he began a year of novitiate with seven classmates in Rosemead, Calif., under the guidance of Fr. Harry Rasmussen. Seven of them professed on Aug. 15, 1993, in Rosemead. Bro. Tom made his perpetual profession in New Rochelle Aug. 21, 1999.

Following his First Profession, Bro. Tom spent two years of post-novitiate formation in South Orange, where he earned an M.A. in education from Seton Hall University (1995). He did practical training at his alma mater, Salesian High, between 1995 and 1997, teaching history and religion. He began theological studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, in 1997. When the Salesians withdrew from the PCJ the following year, Bro. Tom was sent to the Salesian Theological Institute at Tlaquepaque, Mexico. There, he earned a bachelor’s degree in theology as well as learned Spanish.

Fr. Tom was ordained in his home parish of the Immaculate Conception in Tuckahoe Aug. 25, 2001 by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, SDB, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He began his priestly ministry at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Paterson, N.J. as parochial vicar for a year. In 2002 he was sent to St. John Bosco Parish in Chicago as parochial vicar, and in 2003 became vice director of the Salesian community there.

Fr. Tom returned to Salesian High in New Rochelle in 2007 as campus minister (CYM) and religion teacher. Three years later he was assigned to St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Elizabeth, N.J. as director and pastor. In 2013, Fr. Tom returned to Chicago as director and pastor of St. John Bosco. Completing six years with those responsibilities, he moved to College Park, Md., in 2019 to begin studies for a doctorate in theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He didn’t complete that project, but instead took up parish ministry once more in 2021 at St. John Bosco in Port Chester.

Fr. Tom blogged at The AX: 2021 (theaxattheroot.blogspot.com), trying “to give a Catholic-Christian perspective on pop culture, current events and whatever else strikes me at the moment.”

Adam Rudin, program director of the Salesian Lay Missioners, regretted Fr. Tom’s death: “I always found him to be very personable, jolly, and a great conversationalist. I would always look forward to seeing him and spending time with him when the Salesian Lay Missionary Program would stay in Port Chester. He was always so welcoming and took a genuine interest in getting to know the young volunteers.”

Fr. Tom is survived by his brothers Joseph, Anthony and Salvatore and their families.

Funeral Mass, presided over by Bishop John Bonnici, DD, Auxiliary Bishop of New York, was held at St. John Bosco Parish, Port Chester, Wed., July 26, and burial was at the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen, N.Y. Thurs., July 27.

Funeral arrangements by Tutera Funeral Home in Port Chester.