James J. LeBar - Death

Death

Father LeBar died of heart failure on the morning of February 21, 2008 at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, NY. According to friends and colleagues, he was admitted to St. Francis and diagnosed as having what seemed to be (or at some point turned into) a bacterial infection which became septic. He was placed in intensive care and placed on a ventilator, until he died of heart failure.

Father LeBar was buried from Regina Coeli Parish in Hyde Park, New York (roughly two hours north of Manhattan) where he was in residence for nearly the last 25 years, especially while he served during most of that time as priest-chaplain to the Hudson Valley Psychiatric Center. His body lay in-state at the church, where visitation were held on Sunday, February 24 in the afternoon and evening; the Mass of Christian Burial was concelebrated with one of the auxiliary bishops of New York on Monday, February 25, at 10:00.

According to a colleague of Father LeBar: "For those of us who knew and worked with him, were served or mentored by him, we are trying with God’s grace to come to terms with this loss, both personally and for the Church in America. I have often remarked about Father’s disarmingly dry sense of humor—a hallmark of the same man who at times directly addressed and expelled demonic forces. A friend asked yesterday, “I wonder what Fr. LeBar will say when he sees God the Father?” I have no doubt that his sincere but usually witty response, along with his slight Bronx accent, will be something like, “Well—you do look better in person...”"