There’s not going to be room on the Nation/World pages for a more-complete obituary for Father Benedict Groeschel, so I am gifting you with most of it here.

I met Father Benedict in 1984 when he came to speak to our community at Covenant House in midtown Manhattan. He later partnered with my then-boss, Chris Bell, to create a ministry for unwed mothers and their children, working to get them on their feet and independent. One of the happiest priests I ever met was an alumnus of our community, Father Terry, who was an early member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. I would see him at reunions, and I remember when their habit went from brown to gray, which Father Terry said was to complement the new gray hairs in his beard.

At any rate, I always got a kick out of Father Benedict and his to-the-bone New York sense of humor. But he was a whole lot more than that, as you can read below.

Famed author, speaker, psychologist and spiritual director, Father Benedict Joseph (Robert Peter) Groeschel, CFR, 81, died on Oct. 3, after a long illness.

He was born in Jersey City on July 23, 1933. Ten days after his 1951 graduation from Immaculate Conception High School, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars of the Province of St. Joseph in Huntington, Indiana. He pronounced his first vows as a Capuchin in 1952 and his final vows in 1954. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1959.

First, he served 14 years at Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, New York, a residential facility for troubled children. Aware that the facility could not meet the needs of all ages, in 1967 Father Groeschel founded Saint Francis House in Brooklyn to give stability to young men who had no home and no one to care for them. Along with Christopher Bell, in 1985 he founded Good Counsel Homes for pregnant women.

After earning a master’s degree from Iona College in 1964 and a doctorate from Teacher’s College, Columbia University in 1970, he began lifelong work as a counselor who always endeavored to unite effective psychological methods with true Christian compassion and a vibrant spirituality. In 1973 at the request of Terence Cardinal Cooke, he became the founding director of Trinity Retreat in Larchmont, New York, a retreat house primarily for Catholic clergy and religious. He served there for 40 years.

He taught pastoral psychology for nearly four decades at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York, and also taught various times at Iona College, Fordham University, and the Maryknoll School of Theology.

In 1974 Father Groeschel began service at the Office of Spiritual Development of the Archdiocese of New York. He also wrote 46 books and a number of articles, and traveled the globe in his Franciscan habit as a retreat master and speaker. An invitation to conduct a retreat for the Missionaries of Charity in India was the beginning of a long relationship with that community and friendship with Blessed Mother Teresa. In the early 1970’s he was instrumental in helping her establish her first convent in New York.

In 1987, he left his religious order with seven other friars to form a new religious community, of which he became the first Servant (Superior). The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, based in the south Bronx and dedicated to the service to the poor, has grown from eight to 115 members. The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal currently has 35 members.

Father Groeschel took to the airways 30 years ago, appearing on EWTN television network, at the invitation of Mother Angelica. He became a regular on the network in various formats, the last of which was his Sunday Night Live show.

On Jan. 11, 2004 Father Groeschel suffered a near-fatal car accident, leaving him with a shattered left arm and a number of other permanent injuries. He was in a coma for ten days and his recovery took many months. Yet within a year he was working again.

In 2012, after he experienced difficulty in communicating following a minor stroke and other health complications, he officially retired from public life and was welcomed by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Totowa, NJ. To the very end, Fr. Groeschel exhibited his sincere care for others and great love for being a priest.

Rest in peace, Father Benedict!