Father Gail Poynter, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati for 57 years, died June 27, two days after his 83rd birthday.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated July 2 at Our Lady of Good Hope Parish in Dayton by Father David Brinkmoeller. The homilist was Father Lawrence Mierenfeld.

"Father Poynter had a great love for the priesthood and was very proud to be a priest. Even during his retirement years, he was more than willing to assist at parishes when asked," said Father Joseph BInzer, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

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Father Gail Poynter

Following ordination, he served as assistant pastor at St. Agnes Parish in Dayton and Holy Name Parish in Cincinnati and was a guidance counselor at then-Purcell High School. He became administrator of Springfield Catholic Central High School and was instructional television development director for the archdiocesan Board of Education, where he studied the feasibility of setting up an ITV network in the Catholic school system. He also served on Springfield’s Metropolitan Housing Authority in the 1960s, as well as on the board of trustees of Family Services in Cincinnati.

He was community relations director for the archdiocesan schools office and area superintendent for Dayton Catholic Schools. Father Poynter also served as chairman of the communications commission of the Sixth Archdiocesan Synod in 1971.

Over the years Father Poynter assisted at St. Boniface, St. Vivian and St. Elizabeth parishes in Cincinnati, as well as at St. Patrick in Troy and Sacred Heart in New Carlisle.

He retired in 1989 and during his retirement he assisted at several parishes, particularly at Our Lady of Good Hope.

Interment was at Calvary Cemetery in Dayton.

Father Christopher Schneider

Father Christopher Schneider, a Franciscan friar whose efforts to integrate Catholic schools in Louisiana were the subject of a 1963 television documentary, died June 21 at the Archbishop Leibold Home in Cincinnati. He was 86 and had been living there in retirement since 2006.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Father Schneider was one of four brothers who became Franciscan priests. He joined the order in 1941 at St. Anthony Shrine in Cincinnati and was ordained in 1949 in Oldenburg, Ind.

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Father Christopher Schneider

As pastor at Our Lady of Good Harbor in Buras, La., Father Schneider endured death threats when he attempted to integrate the parish school. The school was firebombed and closed, and the battle between Father Schneider and local political boss Leander Perez, who opposed integration, was documented in a "CBS Reports" documentary, "The Priest and the Politician."

From 1971-1979, he was primarily involved in parochial ministry and retreat work in Cincinnati, stationed at St. Thomas Hope, St. George Parish and Friarhurst Retreat Center. He returned to the South in 1979 to become pastor at St. Mary of the Angels Parish in New Orleans and ended his career in active ministry at Duns Scotus, working in the friars’ formation program.

He is survived by nine brothers and sisters, including Father Bernardin Schneider of Tokyo, Father Aquinas Schneider of Peoria, Ill., and Father Ric Schneider of Bloomington, Ill.

A Mass of Christian Burial took place June 23 in Cincinnati.

Sister Maureen Sweeney

Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Maureen Sweeney (formerly Sister Aloyse of the Sacred Heart) died June 26 at the Notre Dame Health Center in Cincinnati at the age of 97.

A native of Cincinnati, she was a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur for 78 years.

Sister Maureen received a bachelor of science in education from the Athenaeum of Ohio and was a life-long educator. Her ministry as a classroom teacher began in Dayton in 1932 at Holy Trinity School and continued later at Holy Angels, St. Agnes and Immaculate Conception schools.

Through the years, Sister Maureen also taught at Cardinal Pacelli School in Cincinnati, St. Paul School in Westerville and at St. Robert Bellarmine School in Chicago.

For more than 18 years, Sister Maureen served in ministry in Arizona, where she taught 4th grade and parish religion classes. She also worked tirelessly to provide social services for the poor of the area including helping families to obtain food, finding them suitable and affordable housing and accompanying them when they had court cases.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated June 20 at the Mount Notre Dame convent chapel in Cincinnati. Interment was July 1 in the order’s cemetery.