NEW YORK
The New York Times

By PAUL VITELLO
OCT. 7, 2014

The Rev. Benedict J. Groeschel, a Franciscan priest and author known in New York City for his efforts on behalf of the poor and familiar to a worldwide television audience as the bearded friar who denounced modernism and news reporting on sexual abuse by priests, died on Friday in Totowa, N.J. He was 81.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a branch of the Franciscan order he helped found in the South Bronx in 1987 to aid poor and homeless people, announced his death, saying he had had a series of strokes in recent years.

Father Groeschel established a many-sided and sometimes contentious public profile during his career as a beloved street priest, civil rights activist, priests’ psychologist, author of religious self-help books and popular host on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a quasi-official Catholic…