In Memory of

Peter

R.

Carey

Obituary for Rev. Peter R. Carey

Rev. Carey was born in New York City on December 14, 1938 to Peter R. Carey and Kathleen O'Hara. In 1959, he entered the Dominican Order and in 1966 was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. While a Catholic priest, he completed his graduate studies in Rome at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum. Just before the conferral of his doctoral degree, he left the Dominicans. He remained in Rome and taught English to Russian Jewish emigrants to America.

Carey moved to New York in 1977 where he worked for Price Waterhouse and later for Citibank. At Citibank, he translated technical material into plain English, wrote speeches, edited newsletters, and travelled worldwide on behalf of the bank. He become a vice president in 1987.

After returning to New York, Carey became an Episcopalian and was involved in promoting gay rights and AIDS activism. He began a clipping service that helped early AIDS organizations know what was being published about AIDS both in the U.S. and abroad. He was also among the founders of the AIDS Memorial Chapel at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan and the chairman of the AIDS Memorial Fund that made small grants to start-up AIDS organizations.

In 1985, he was elected to the Board of Directors of Integrity/New York where he advocated for the greater inclusion of gay and lesbian members in The Episcopal Church. In 1990, he returned to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church to be of help to those dying in the AIDS epidemic and was named a Trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in 1992.

Carey served as vicar of St. Stephen’s Woodlawn in The Bronx from 1991 to 1997. His communications with the parish were compiled and published as A Vicar's Pages. In 1994, he was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia and left St. Stephen’s, later volunteering as an assisting priest at the Church of the Holy Apostles in New York City. In 2000, Carey received an experimental cancer treatment and was able to recover from his leukemia. In recent years he has spent significant time in Venice.

Peter Carey is married to David Natoli. They were married in Quebec in 2007 after being together 30 years.