OBITUARY NOTICE:
Father Peter J. Taran, SA – Franciscan Friar of the Atonement
(July 3, 1933 – June 30, 2019)
(July 1, 2019 – Graymoor, Garrison, NY). Father Peter J. Taran (nee Tarantino), SA, a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement, passed from this life on Sunday, June 30, 2019, at Cabrini of Westchester Nursing Home in Dobbs Ferry, NY. A wake service was held Tuesday, July 2, 2019, at 7 p.m. in Our Lady of the Atonement Chapel at Graymoor in Garrison, NY. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Wednesday, July 3, 2019, at 11 a.m. in the Chapel with interment in the Friars’ cemetery immediately after Mass.
Fr. Taran was born on July 3, 1933 in Bronx, NY. He attended Good Shepherd elementary school in New York City and high school at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx and St. John Atonement Seminary in Montour Falls, NY, from which he graduated in 1953.
Fr. Taran entered the Friars of the Atonement in 1950 and received the habit in 1953. He made his first vows in 1954 and professed final vows in 1957. He was ordained in 1960 at Graymoor.
Fr. Taran served the Fraternity as Cleric Master at St. Pius X Seminary in Garrison (1960-1961); Latin teacher at St. John Seminary, Montour Falls (1961-1967); and Director of the Seminary in Washington, DC (1967-1970). He served in pastoral ministry at Chapel of Our Savior, Brockton, MA from 1970-1977. Fr. Taran was on the staff of the Ecumenical Office and served as Director of the Catholic Central Library, London, England from 1977-1981. He was elected to the General Council of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in 1981 and served as Vicar General until 1985. During a sabbatical year in Rome in 1986, Fr. Taran earned his Master of Theology from Angelicum University. He ministered for the Friars at Graymoor in the Christian Unity Center from 1986-1998. Fr. Taran also served as Director of Postulants at Atonement Seminary, Washington, DC from 1988-1989. In 1998, he returned to England and was assigned Pastor of St. John Fisher Church in Rochester, a position he held until 2003.
Fr. Taran retired from full-time ministry in 2003 and took up residence at St. Paul Friary at Graymoor. He was a resident of Cabrini of Westchester Nursing Home at the time of his death.
Fr. Taran was the son of the late Peter Tarantino and Catherine (Snyder) Taran, both of New York City. He was predeceased by his two brothers, Richard Taran and Kenneth Taran, and his sister, Catherine Engert.