Gaetano Aldo Donato

Gaetano Aldo "Thomas" Donato (1 October 1940 – 25 August 2015) was an Italian-American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He notably served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey.

Early life and education Gaetano Aldo Donato was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Antonio and Rosa Donato, who had immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1923. The fifth of six children, he had two sisters, Mary and Rose, and three brothers, Constantino, John and Robert. Named after his paternal grandfather, Donato has, however, always gone by Thomas. He then served as parochial vicar at St. John the Baptist Parish in Hillsdale until 1973, and at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Bayonne from 1973 to 1982. He then became pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Bayonne, where Donato introduced extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and lectors into the Mass. He died on August 25, 2015, aged 74, in Community Medical Center, Toms River NJ, after a brief battle with cancer.