September  12, 2020

Reverend Raymond Joseph Joyce

Father Raymond Joyce, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita for 58 years, died Sept. 12. He was born on Sept. 2, 1935, in Philadelphia. He attended Catholic schools in St. Louis, Missouri, and studied for the priesthood at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.

He was ordained for the Diocese of Wichita on April 7, 1962, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Father Joyce first served as an assistant at All Saints Parish in Wichita. In 1963 he was named assistant at Church of the Magdalen in Wichita. He later served as an assistant at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, St. Teresa Parish in Hutchinson, and as a religion teacher at Trinity Catholic High School in Hutchinson.

In 1968 Father Joyce began teaching at St. Gregory’s College in Shawnee. He became a chaplain for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in 1985, and returned to the Diocese of Wichita in 1998 as a chaplain for Via Christi Medical Center. He retired on Oct. 1, 1998, and began serving as a volunteer for the medical center.

Fr. Joyce’s Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on September 25, 2020. His remains were buried at St. Gregory’s Abbey in Shawnee, Oklahoma.