Father John Fleming, 87, a retired priest of the Diocese of Camden, died March 19.
Retiring in 2007 from active ministry, he had resided at Sacred Heart Residence, Cherry Hill, since 2018.
Msgr. William Brennan, who also resides at Sacred Heart Residence, called Father Fleming a “good and holy priest.”
Fellow resident Msgr. Harry Jordan was ordained with Father Fleming in 1961. He remembered the former chaplain and teacher as a “faithful priest and good friend. He will be missed.”
Born July 17, 1934, in Newark, Father Fleming studied for the priesthood at Immaculate Conception Seminary, Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J.; Saint Francis Seminary, Loretto, Pa., and Saint Maur’s Seminary, South Union, Ky.
Father Fleming was ordained a priest of the Diocese by Bishop Celestine J. Damiano on May 27, 1961, at Camden’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. His first assignment was as parochial vicar of Saint Lawrence Church in Lindenwold.
In his 45 ½ years of active ministry, Father Fleming was shepherd to the community, to the imprisoned, to schoolchildren and to the sick.
He was an educator at Villa Rossello, Newfield; Sacred Heart High School, Vineland; Wildwood Catholic High School; Saint Paul, Stone Harbor, and Saint Pius X in Cherry Hill.
As a chaplain, Father Fleming brought care to inmates in the Camden County prison, and to the afflicted in Saint Mary Nursing Home and Manor in Cherry Hill, Kessler Memorial Hospital in Hammonton, and in the Crest Haven Home for the Aged.
He also served as founder and chief of 664 Fire Department in Voorhees, the National Board of the Saint Vincent DePaul Society, and Tefap Coordinator for the Department of Agriculture.
A viewing will be held at 9:30 a.m. March 23 at Saint Mary of Mt. Carmel Parish, Church of St. Anthony of Padua, 285 Route 206 in Hammonton, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m. celebrated by Bishop Dennis Sullivan.
Interment will follow in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Berlin.
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