Father Joseph Miller, C.PP.S., 70, of the Kansas City Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood died on March 16 at St. Francis Xavier Parish in St. Joseph, Missouri. He previously served in the Diocese of Davenport.
Father Miller was born in Bellevue, Ohio, on Aug. 13, 1950, to Alfred and Agnes (Hay) Miller. He entered formation with the Society of the Precious Blood at Brunnerdale Seminary in Canton, Ohio in September 1964, graduated from St. Joseph’s College, Rennselaer, Indiana in 1973, and became a pledged candidate on May 23, 1973. He was definitively incorporated as a Missionary of the Precious Blood on April 15, 1976. He received his M.Div. in Theology from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1977, and was ordained to the priesthood on June 18, 1977, at Immaculate Conception Church, Bellevue, Ohio.
During his ministry he served at Sacred Heart Parish in Sedalia, Missouri; St. Francis Xavier Parish in St. Joseph, Missouri, St. James Church in Liberty, Missouri; Immaculate Conception Church in Butternut, Wisconsin; St. Mary Parish in Centerville, Iowa; Sacred Heart Church in Sedalia, Missouri; Sacred Heart Church in Warrensburg, Missouri. Father Miller also was vocation director for the Kansas City Province and spent a year teaching at Precious Blood Seminary in Liberty, Missouri.
His funeral was held March 22 at St. James Parish in Liberty with burial at St. Charles Center in Carthagena, Ohio, at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Society of the Precious Blood, in care of Heaton-Bowman-Smith Funeral Home in St. Joseph, Missouri.