In Memory

Rev. Joseph Curcio, SFM
1924-2011

March/April 2012

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Fr. Joseph Anthony Curcio, Scarboro priest and missionary, died on August 30, 2011. Born in Toronto on June 16, 1924, to Charles and Constance Curcio, Fr. Joe is predeceased by his parents, his brother Sebastian (Sam), and his sisters Ann, Lucy (Battaglia) and Mary (Durling). Fr. Joe attended De La Salle and St. Michael’s High Schools in Toronto and joined the Canadian Armed Forces in the summer of 1942, serving in the Netherlands and in Germany.

In 1946, Fr. Joe returned to Canada with two things on his mind. The first was his decision to become a priest. Six years later, on December 20, 1952, he was ordained for Scarboro Missions at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto by James Cardinal McGuigan.

The second thing on his mind when he returned from the war was to help the Vook family who had shown him much kindness when he was in Holland for its liberation. He prepared the immigration papers for this family of 11 children and their parents to come to Canada and stay at his parent’s home in Toronto until they got settled. Fr. Joe and the Vonk family remained lifelong friends and, in truth, they became his second family.

In 1953, Fr. Joe was assigned to San José de Ocoa, a remote mountain region of the Dominican Republic. In his pastoral work, he addressed the extreme poverty of the people and helped to form a development organization that continues today, bettering the lives of the people through cooperative education and sustainable economic alternatives. Scarboro missioner Fr Lou Quinn spent 42 years there furthering this work.

Fr. Joe also served among the poorest of the poor, the Haitian migrant workers, enslaved to the large sugar-cane plantations in the Dominican Republic.

In 1980, after 21 years in the Dominican Republic, Fr. Joe set out for Guinea Bissau to share the life of the people and their experience of God. He returned home to work in Scarboro’s formation house in Edmonton, and then in 1983 went to Nicaragua, journeying in solidarity with the poor and suffering during a time of intense civil war. Coming home on vacation, he spoke at Toronto parishes, condemning the violence that was being waged against his Nicaraguan parishioners by the US-backed Contra paramilitary forces.

When Fr. Joe returned to Canada in 1988, he felt drawn to live and work among the Cree peoples of Northern Saskatchewan. He saw their suffering and wanted to identify with them in their struggles. He felt drawn to their gentle ways, their love of family and community, their oneness with nature, reverencing creation and experiencing God in the whole web of life. To him, they were as kindred spirits. This is surely why he requested that on his coffin be placed a simple wooden cross made of clothes pegs, given to him by a young Cree girl. The cross hung on the wall of his room, fitting Fr. Joe’s image of Jesus, God incarnate, who identified so closely with the poor.

In later years, Fr. Joe volunteered to live at Scarboro’s vocations house in downtown Toronto and was always present at our Out of the Cold lunches. Everyone loved to sit and chat with him while he listened.

A great writer and contributor to Scarboro Missions magazine and other publications, Fr. Joe expressed a profound spirituality, revealing his relationship with Christ and acquired wisdom from his lived experience.

Fr. Joe lived life with humble faith and courage. He loved God deeply and served God among the poor and the downtrodden, God’s little ones. This humble Italian with his deep sense of justice, compassion, hospitality and gentle humour inspired us.

Fr. Joe is buried in Queen of Clergy Cemetery at St. Augustine’s Seminary, Scarborough. May he rest in peace.

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