Priestly Ordination Held in Rome

1959: Cardinal Gregoire Agagianian, Pro-Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, ordained Father Daniel Pilarczyk on Dec. 20.

The Catholic Telegraph-Register of December 18, 1959, reported:

“Mr. Pilarczyk, who has been studying at the College of the Propagation of the Faith, will be ordained in the college chapel along with 33 other ordinands from 21 different countries. The ordaining prelate will be Cardinal Gregoire Pierre Agagianian, Pro-Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

The son of Daniel Pilarczyk and the late Mrs. Fredericka Pilarczyk of Dayton, Mr. Pilarczyk was born in that city Aug. 12, 1934. He attended Our Lady of Mercy and St. Anthony’s Grade Schools and Sacred Heart Latin School in Dayton and began his studies for the priesthood at St. Gregory’s Seminary in 1948. Five years later he was sent to Rome to study philosophy and theology at the Propagation College. After three years of philosophy he received a licentiate in that subject. He is expected to receive a licentiate in theology at the end of the current school year.

The newly ordained priest will celebrate his First Solemn mass in the college chapel on Dec. 21. Father Giles Pater, Cincinnati priest studying in Rome, will be the subdeacon of the Mass. Father Arthur Leen, another Cincinnatian studying in Rome, will be the assisting priest during the ordination ceremony.” (The Catholic Telegraph-Register, December 18, 1959)

Note: Read more about Archbishop Pilarczyk's 50 years of service in the priesthood in the December 18, 2009, issue of The Catholic Telegraph and online at www.thecatholictelegraph.com.