Father Raymond S. Bianchi, rector of St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, from 1986 to 1998 and noted peacemaker during troubled times in Perth Amboy, entered into eternal life on June 30 in Italy, where he lived in retirement.

Born in Ferrentino, Italy, Father Bianchi prepared for the priesthood in Italy and Spain, studying in  Collegio Divin Salvatori, Rome, and the Claretian Seminary, Rome. He was ordained a priest of the Claretian order by Archbishop Joseph Masterson March 8, 1952 in Oscott College in Birmingham, England. His first of many pastoral assignments was as parochial vicar in St. Edmund Parish, Loughton, England.

Father Bianchi first joined the Claretian ministry in the growing Hispanic community of Perth Amboy, then a city in the Trenton Diocese, in 1954. He served as a parochial vicar there for a year, when he was transferred to Chicago. There, he worked among Spanish speaking residents for 12 years.

Returning to Perth Amboy in 1966 as pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish, newspapers of the day and the parish website record that during a time when the city was torn by ethnic and racial turmoil, Father Bianchi took a lead role in restoring peace in the Hispanic community and the city itself.

He remained a guiding light in the city’s civic life even as he strove to set a firm footing for the growing faith community he led. Father Bianchi served on many community boards and commissions, while leading his growing flock in ways that are still remembered.

Under his guidance, Our Lady of Fatima Parish, which now boasts 1,300 families, grew in successive steps. The parish history on its website records how Father Bianchi’s foresight led the campus to expand from a small, frame chapel and rectory on Lawrence Street to land on which a large, modern, multi-purpose building housing a church, rectory and religious education center was built.

When the community gathered to celebrate the silver anniversary of his ordination, he was recognized as an example for his parishioners, cited in a tribute from them as “establishing a workable and constructive program within the church, including the Holy Name Society, which is one of the most active in the diocese and a catechetical program which, with the help of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, instructs more than 1,000 grammar school children” in religious education.

After a sabbatical year at the University of Salamanca in Madrid, he returned to New Jersey as pastor of St. Anthony Claret Parish, Lakewood. In 1986, Bishop John C. Reiss named him rector of St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, where, during a time of urban blight, the membership had fallen to just about 100 according to “Upon this Rock” – a history of the Trenton Diocese.

There, he ministered to a growing population of Hispanic faithful. Incardinated in the Diocese of Trenton on Aug. 6, 1991, Father Bianchi’s years of priestly service were celebrated in a Mass March 9, 1997, attended by Bishop Reiss and Bishop John M. Smith, then coadjutor bishop of the Diocese. The Mass also marked the 45th anniversary of Father Bianchi’s priestly ordination.

Upon his retirement, Father  Bianchi returned to live in his native Italy.