Home Obituaries ‘Brother Chris’ — Father Christopher Posch — former Diocese of Wilmington director...

‘Brother Chris’ — Father Christopher Posch — former Diocese of Wilmington director of Hispanic ministry, dies in Maryland.

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Brother Chris Posch, left, a Franciscan priest who led Hispanic ministry in the Diocese of Wilmington for 18 years, died July 5. Dialog file photo.

Father Christopher Posch, longtime director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Wilmington, died early July 5.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Father Christopher Posch, known as Brother Chris

Known as Brother Chris, he spent nearly 18 years in the Hispanic ministry job in the diocese. In 2016, the Franciscan priest moved from the diocese after being named pastor of St. Camillus Church, a Franciscan parish in Silver Spring, Md.

In almost two decades in his post, Father Posch, who was 53 when transferred, saw the Hispanic population grow in the diocese, and weekly Spanish Masses increased from 10 parishes to 20.

Ordained a priest in 1995, Father Posch came to Wilmington in 1998, when Bishop Saltarelli had established a plan to minister to Spanish-speaking Catholics.

At the time, Father Posch was at his first priestly assignment at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Camden, N.J. He was invited to bring the parish soccer team to Wilmington to play a St. Paul’s team here by Franciscan Father Larry Hayes, who was St. Paul’s pastor.

After the match, Father Hayes invited Father Posch into the rectory; there he found Bishop Saltarelli waiting with an invitation for him to run the diocese’s office for Hispanic Ministry.

Raised on Long Island in New York, Father Posch attended public schools there before going to the Christian Brothers’ Manhattan College.

In the seminary, in addition to studying Spanish in Bolivia, Father Posch specialized in “messiology,” a word for cross-cultural studies, according to The Dialog archives. The language and the messiology proved to be perfect preparation for his ministry in Wilmington.