Mark Aita, physician and priest at N. Camden agency

The Rev. Mark C. Aita was not only the founder of St. Luke's Catholic Medical Services in North Camden which, as a doctor of internal medicine, he directed from 1983 to 2000.

As a Jesuit priest, he also was an associate pastor at Holy Name Church in Camden from 1983 to 1997, which housed his Jesuit Urban Service Team.

There was more.

"Besides working 15 to 16 hours as a medical doctor, he started a Little League" in Camden, "with several hundred children," said the Rev. Rick Malloy, who said he was its T-ball commissioner.

Father Aita was "a priest, a doctor, and head of the Jesuit Urban Service Team," which helped run St. Luke's, said Father Malloy, a colleague at St. Luke's.

Overall, Father Malloy said, "he was just a lot of fun."

On Jan. 11, Father Aita, 67, died of respiratory illness in the infirmary of Loyola Center at St. Joseph's University.

Father Aita was assistant director of the Institute of Clinical Bioethics at St. Joseph's from 2007 to 2015.

And in recent years, he was also professor of biology and a spiritual director at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

The Rev. Brendan Lally, rector and religious superior of the Jesuit community at St. Joseph's, had known Father Aita for more than 30 years.

"He was a man of great faith and great compassion for others," Father Lally said.

In later years, "he had a chronic illness that required use of oxygen equipment," Father Lally said, "but he carried it around with him," even celebrating Mass with it.

"He was an inspiration to all who met him."

Born in Philadelphia, Father Aita graduated in 1967 from La Salle College High School, which in 1998 named him to its Hall of Fame, "because of his accomplished mission in North Camden," his brother Paul said.

He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Wernersville, Pa., in 1967, graduated from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1977, and was ordained in 1983.

"He wanted to become a priest from the time he was a little boy," his brother said. From the ages of 5 and 6, "he would say Mass on the kitchen radiator," bits he remembered from attending parish services.

After completing his novitiate studies and while working toward his undergraduate degree at Fordham University in New York City, "in his work at Roosevelt Hospital he discovered he could do much more" as a physician, his brother said.

And so the Jesuits sent him to medical school.

In Camden, Father Lally said, Father Aita showed that "he had a compassionate love for people and established a service which really served people of lower income."

St. Luke's Catholic Medical Services, he said, included "patient education classes and home medical services."

His brother said that while in Camden, Father Aita was also on the staff at Cooper University Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center.

"He was a fireball," his brother said.

Besides his brother Paul, Father Aida is survived by his brother Joseph.

A viewing was set from 9 to 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at St. Matthias Church, 128 Bryn Mawr Ave, Bala Cynwyd, before a 10:30 a.m. Funeral Mass there, with 1:30 p.m. interment in the cemetery at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville.

Donations may be sent to a charity of one's choice.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.dinanfuneralhome.com.

wnaedele@phillynews.com

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