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December 22, 2020 – Fr. George A. Restrepo, SJ, was born to George and Julia (Mallarino) Restrepo on December 19, 1933, in Washington Heights, New York City. He attended Regis High School (1948-52) and entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew on Hudson on August 14, 1952. After his first vows George spent one more year at St. Andrew before moving to Bellarmine College in Plattsburgh, N.Y., for his second year of juniorate.

His philosophical studies were made at Loyola Seminary in Shrub Oak, N.Y. (1956-59). Fr. Restrepo’s first teaching assignment was at Loyola School in Manhattan, N.Y., where for three years he taught Latin and English. He then went to Woodstock College in Maryland to study theology (1962-66) and was ordained to the priesthood by Francis Cardinal Spellman in the Fordham University Chapel on 10 June 1965. Fr. Restrepo made his tertianship in Auriesville, N.Y., at Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine (1966-67).

After tertianship George took an assignment to teach religion and English at the Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola in San Juan, Puerto Rico (1967-71). He then returned to the mainland and spent two years studying communications at New York University while residing at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City.

In 1973 George began 35 years in pastoral apostolates at the Shrine of the Little Flower in Baltimore (1973-95), St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Baltimore (1995-2006), and the Jesuit Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville, N.Y., (2006-08). In Auriesville he was also the Media Center Coordinator.

In 2008, Fr. Restrepo moved to Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was an assistant in the Office of Student Life and also at the Little Theatre. After two years, Fr. Restrepo became an instructor of Fine Arts and in the following year a chaplain at the Catholic Academy of West Buffalo, where he served until November 2016. Then, for reasons of health, he was transferred to the Murray-Weigel Jesuit Community in the Bronx.

Fr. Restrepo had a deep faith, an easy acceptance of anyone he met, and a love of film and the theatre.
He celebrated his 87th birthday on December 19, 2020, and died quietly the next day in his room at Murray-Weigel. May his good soul rest in peace.

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