Father Francis Xavier Aracil, almost always called Father Javier, entered eternal life at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, on Wednesday, December 18. He was 90 years old and had belonged to the Marian Shrine community of Haverstraw-Stony Point since 2018. He was a professed Salesian for 72 years and a priest for 61 years.

Father Aracil served at three Salesian high schools, three parishes, the Salesian provincial center, and the Marian Shrine in the Archdiocese of New York. As a teacher at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, he would have had many New Yorkers as students.

Father Aracil began his priestly ministry at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, teaching Spanish and religion to sophomores and juniors (1963-1964). The next year he became campus minister at Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen for aspirants to the priesthood; he also taught U.S. history and health.

Father Aracil was transferred in 1965 to another junior seminary in the area, Don Bosco Technical Institute in Haverstraw, for aspirants to the brotherhood and for young brothers in training. He served as campus minister, Spanish and health teacher, and guidance counselor (1965-1968). In this period, he also completed an M.S. in education at Fordham University (1967). Later, he earned a professional diploma in counselor education from Fordham (1974).

In 1973-1978, Father Aracil’s ministry shifted primarily to parish work, first at Mary Help of Christians in Manhattan as assistant pastor; his apostolate was mainly among the many Hispanics of the East Village. He returned in 2003-2007.

He was called to New Rochelle in 1997 as province secretary and a member of the provincial council until 2003. During that time, he assisted with Spanish ministry at St. Joseph-St. Gabriel Church in New Rochelle. From 2011-2013, he served in Port Chester as an assistant pastor, one year at Corpus Christi Church, then one at Holy Rosary Church.

After suffering a stroke in 2018, Father Aracil moved to the senior residence at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw. He continued to offer his services as a confessor as much as possible at both the shrine chapel and the retreat house, and he took part in province celebrations as often as he could. His last director, Father Manny Gallo, SDB, had known him from childhood in Miami. He writes: “Father Francis Xavier Aracil was an amazing Salesian priest! He spent hours in the confessional here at the Shrine, and we thank God for his vocation. Father Francis and I were very close, and I am heartbroken to have lost a man that I looked up to since I was a kid. He was the one that gave me my first Communion, and I was always proud to say that every time we were together with other people.”

Javier Aracil was born in Alcoy (Alicante province), Spain, on September 4, 1934, to Baldomero and Concepcion Gosalbez Aracil. The family suffered a lot during the Spanish Civil War. Javier enrolled in a Salesian school in Barcelona in 1948 and was admitted to the novitiate in Barcelona in 1951. Brother Aracil made his first religious profession in Barcelona on Aug. 16, 1952, and almost immediately departed for the United States. He graduated from Don Bosco College in Newton, New Jersey, in 1955 with a B.A. in philosophy.

He studied theology in Turin, Italy, and was ordained there on February 11, 1963. He was awarded an STL in 1963, cum laude, from the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum (now the Salesian Pontifical University).

Father Aracil also served as a teacher and counselor at Salesian schools in Boston and Miami and carried out extensive Hispanic ministry. He served in Salesian parishes in Miami and New Jersey and was a formator of young Salesians in New Jersey.

Father Aracil is survived by his brother Jorge Aracil Gosalbez of Madrid, and a niece, Maria Emilia Ferrandiz of Alcoy, Spain.

Father Aracil’s Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Saturday, December 21. Father Dominic Tran, SDB, provincial, presided, and Father Patrick Angelucci, SDB, preached. He was interred at the Salesian Cemetery at Goshen on December 23, 2024.