Joseph Anthony Ferrario (March 3, 1926 – December 12, 2003) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu from 1982 to 1993. He previously serve as an auxiliary bishop of the diocese from 1978 to 1982.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Ferrario was accused by several individuals of sexually abusing them when they were minors.
Early life and priestly ministry
Joseph Ferrario was born in March 3, 1926, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Ferrario was ordained to the priesthood for the Society of Saint Sulpice on May 19, 1951, at Saint Peter's Cathedral in Scranton. In 1968, Ferrario was transferred, or incardinated, from the Supicians to the Diocese of Honolulu. The case was eventually dismissed in court
Ferrario's harshest critics were the conservative followers of the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's Priestly Society of Saint Pius X. Bishop Ferrario, through his judicial vicar, Father Joseph Bukoski, J.C.L., issued a canonical decree of excommunication to six individuals in 1991. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, later reversed Ferrario's action.
Retirement
On October 12, 1993, Ferrario retired as bishop of Honolulu. After retirement, he resided near Saint Anthony of Padua Church in Kailua and continued his charitable work with the Augustine Educational Foundation. He kept a vigorous schedule to raise money for Catholic education in the Hawaiian Islands through the Augustine Educational Foundation.
Death
Ferrario died of cardiac arrest on December 12, 2003, aged 77. He was buried at Hawaiian Memorial Park in Kane‘ohe, Hawaii.
In 2013, Troy Franks, a student at the St. Anthony Parish school in 1975, sued the diocese, claiming that Ferrario had sexually assaulted him starting when he was seven-years-old, for three years. Another man filed a similar lawsuit in April 2014. By 2016, five lawsuits were pending against the diocese regarding Ferrario.