{"id":277153,"date":"2018-02-06T12:41:57","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T17:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleteia.org\/?post_type=post&amp;p=277153"},"modified":"2018-02-06T12:41:57","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T17:41:57","slug":"rip-rev-peter-colapietro-mickey-rourkes-guardian-angel-and-a-great-new-york-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/02\/rip-rev-peter-colapietro-mickey-rourkes-guardian-angel-and-a-great-new-york-priest\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP, Rev. Peter Colapietro, Mickey Rourke&#8217;s &#8216;guardian angel&#8217; and a great New York priest"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/05\/nyregion\/peter-colapietro-saloon-priest-dies.html?hpw&amp;rref=obituaries&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=well-region&amp;region=bottom-well&amp;WT.nav=bottom-well\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><strong>The New York Times:<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">The Rev. Peter M. Colapietro, a Roman Catholic priest and outsize New York personality whose late-night presence as a regular at celebrity hangouts contrasted with his low-key work in parishes in Manhattan, died on Monday night. He was 69.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">The cause was emphysema, said Dr. Joseph Platania, his cardiologist. Father Colapietro had been in a rehabilitation facility for about a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">He was assigned to St. Malachy\u2019s Roman Catholic Church, known as the Actors\u2019 Chapel, in 2015 after two years at the Church of St. Monica on East 79th Street. But he spent most of his career at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church on West 42nd Street, where he was the pastor for 18 years and the parish administrator for three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Father Colapietro \u2014 \u201cFather Pete\u201d to those who encountered him, in or out of a church \u2014 became known as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/06\/23\/nyregion\/last-call-for-the-saloon-priest.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201csaloon priest.\u201d<\/a> This was partly because he had worked in bars before he joined the priesthood and partly because he was a regular at Elaine\u2019s, the celebrity hangout on the Upper East Side <a title=\"News article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/05\/27\/nyregion\/elaines-restaurant-jammed-on-its-closing-night.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">that closed in 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"story-continues-1\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\">From his late nights there and at other haunts, he knew his share of celebrities, and he ministered to them, formally and informally. In 2003 he delivered the homily at the funeral Mass for <a title=\"Times obituary\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2003\/05\/15\/sports\/dave-debusschere-62-relentless-forward-on-knicks-championship-teams-is-dead.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dave DeBusschere<\/a>, the Hall of Fame forward for the Knicks. He said Mass in 2015 on the death of the irrepressible restaurateur <a title=\"Times obituary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/01\/16\/nyregion\/jean-claude-baker-a-restaurateur-dies-at-71.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jean-Claude Baker<\/a>, whose Chez Josephine was down the block from Holy Cross.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026Some Sundays he officiated at Mass after a breakfast of coffee and cigarettes, and sometimes there were tense moments. At Holy Cross, a man once threw a beer bottle toward the front of the church during Sunday Mass. It chipped a step leading to the altar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Another time, <a title=\"News article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/entertainment\/films\/137686\/Mickey-Rourke-I-had-a-gun-a-priest-saved-me\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the actor Mickey Rourke walked in<\/a>. Father Colapietro said he realized that Mr. Rourke had a gun and wanted \u201cto kill somebody and commit suicide.\u201d Mr. Rourke\u2019s two-year-old marriage to the model Carr\u00e9 Otis was fraying. The Catholic publication Our Sunday Visitor reported that he had been on his way to kill a man who he believed had raped Ms. Otis while she was high on drugs. Father Colapietro said Mr. Rourke had been carrying a suicide note.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Mr. Rourke said that Father Colapietro \u201ctook away my gun\u201d and persuaded him to put it behind a statue of St. Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes. Father Colapietro said later that he did not remember disarming Mr. Rourke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe sat here and smoked cigarettes and drank wine and left as friends,\u201d he recalled in 2013.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/05\/nyregion\/peter-colapietro-saloon-priest-dies.html?hpw&amp;rref=obituaries&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=well-region&amp;region=bottom-well&amp;WT.nav=bottom-well\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read more.<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The New York Times: The Rev. Peter M. Colapietro, a Roman Catholic priest and outsize New York personality whose late-night presence as a regular at celebrity hangouts contrasted with his low-key work in parishes in Manhattan, died on Monday night. He was 69. The cause was emphysema, said Dr. Joseph Platania, his cardiologist. Father [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":277163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11252],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-mind"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>RIP, Rev. Peter Colapietro, Mickey Rourke&#039;s &#039;guardian angel&#039; and a great New York priest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From The New York Times: The Rev. Peter M. 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