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The following obituary was originally printed in the May 16 edition of The Catholic Standard and Times

Catholic Standard and Times

May 16, 2002

By LOU BALDWIN
CS&T Staff Writer

Father Peter D. Burke, 64, pastor of St. Cyril of Alexandria Parish, Lansdowne, and former pastor of St. Ambrose, died May 7.
"My friendship with Father Burke goes all the way back to our high school days at St. Tommy More," said Father Joseph P. McGeown. "He was a very compassionate man, not an ivory tower priest. He walked the talk and understood the trials and struggles of people having difficulties raising families, things like that. He was like the Christ, compassionate and loved by his people."
He had a great love, interest and knowledge of Church history, Father McGeown said.
Cardinal Bevilacqua visited Father Burke at his rectory three days before he died. "Get well, Pete," he urged him. "We need you. St. Cyril's needs you; they all love you."
Before leaving, the Cardinal knelt and asked for a blessing from the dying priest.
"He was the most respected and well-loved priest ever associated with the parish," said St. Cyril parish secretary Mary Lou Love. "Everyone felt like they were his best friend. He had a heart the size of Texas and would do anything for anybody."
Love remembers Father Burke as a gifted homilist and a man with great devotion to the Miraculous Medal. Born on the feast of the Miraculous Medal, the annual novena devotion was a high point of the year for him.
He was also a model train buff and had an extensive model village for his trains which would be set up every Christmas. "The kids would come in to see them and he would give them an ornament and a candy cane," Love said.
Father Burke "made people feel special, like they were No. 1," said parishioner Theresa Haggerty. "He wanted the parish to be `user friendly.'"
"We were Irish twins. I was born in January, he in November," said his brother, Msgr. Michael Burke. "He was a big man with a big heart and always involved in his ministry. He had an absolutely great love for his priesthood and his work. He was very talented and would do anything to beautify God's house. His great fear was that he wouldn't be pastor when he died, so it's wonderful that he died in his rectory."
The son of Ellen (McCrossan) Burke and the late Peter P. Burke, he attended Our Lady of Lourdes School and St. Thomas More High School before entering St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.
Ordained May 22, 1965 at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul by then-Archbishop John J. Krol, his first assignment was as parochial vicar at Nativity B.V.M., Media. He also served at St. Martin, New Hope, and St. Bernard. He was a faculty member of Bishop McDevitt High School in Wyncote and was vice rector and pastoral formation director at St. Charles Seminary.
Father Burke was named pastor of St. Ambrose in 1989 and pastor of St. Cyril's in 1993.
Cardinal Bevilacqua celebrated Father Burke's funeral Mass at St. Cyril's on May 10. Concelebrants included Msgr. Burke; Msgrs. William J. Lynn and Richard J. Skelly; Fathers Charles E. Bonner, John J. Foster, Edward T. Kearns, Gavin W. Muir and Philip C. Ricci, and Father McGeown, who was homilist.
In addition to his mother and brother, Father Burke is survived by his brothers, Edward J. and Thomas G. Burke, and his sister, Mercy Sister Mary Elizabeth Burke. Interment was at Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon.

Reprinted with permission of the Catholic Standard and Times

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