{"id":2489,"date":"2012-06-12T16:47:20","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T14:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/padrimariani.org\/en\/2018\/03\/13\/antonio-dos-reis-fernandes-mic-passed-awayheartbreak-leads-to-heavenly-calling-copy-copy-123\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T21:53:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T20:53:06","slug":"donald-petraitis-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/padrimariani.org\/en\/2012\/06\/12\/donald-petraitis-passed-away\/","title":{"rendered":"USA: Father Donald S. Petraitis MIC, passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"

USA, Massachusetts<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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June\u00a012,\u00a02012<\/p>\n<\/div>

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USA: Father Donald S. Petraitis MIC, passed away<\/strong><\/h2><\/div>
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\"\"Rev.\u00a0Donald\u00a0S. Petraitis\u00a0MIC, former Superior General of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception and the last Provincial Superior of the Saint Casimir Province passed away peacefully on June\u00a012,\u00a02012 at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

Born in Chicago in\u00a01937, Fr.\u00a0Donald grew up under the pastoral guidance of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception and Sisters of St.\u00a0Casimir who served at Our Lady of Vilna Parish. It was the Marian Fathers, the community that Blessed George Matulaitis preserved from extinction and renovated, that Fr.\u00a0Donald chose to enter and professed his religious vows on July\u00a016,\u00a01956. Completing his college studies at St.\u00a0Procopius College (now Benedictine University), he continued his priestly formation at the Marian Hills Seminary in Clarendon Hills,\u00a0IL. Fr.\u00a0Donald was ordained a priest on May\u00a09,\u00a01964, and after ordination he was assigned to a teaching post at Marianapolis Preparatory School in Thompson,\u00a0CT, where in\u00a01970 he became its Director. In July\u00a01975 the General Chapter elected Fr.\u00a0Petraitis the Vicar General, and he moved to Rome. He not only completed nine years of service as Vicar but since\u00a01984 he served the Congregation as its Superior General. In\u00a01993 he returned to Chicago and within months he was elected to the office of Provincial Superior, serving in this capacity until\u00a02006 when two American Provinces merged and formed the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province. Fr.\u00a0Petraitis spent his last three years in retirement at the Marian Residence in Thompson,\u00a0CT.<\/p>\n

Fr.\u00a0Donald played a significant role during his leadership as Superior General of the Congregation. It was his responsibility to guide the Congregation during a period of profound changes in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, where many of the Congregation’s members lived and worked. Fr.\u00a0Donald was able to witness the life and ministry of his confreres working under highly oppressive conditions of the Soviet regime before\u00a01989. He stayed in contact with Marians from Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine who joined our Congregation in secret. He cared for their material and spiritual needs, thereby encouraging and strengthening them. His was also the responsibility to guide the community in the aftermath of the\u00a01989 dissolution of the Soviet Union and restoration of the Baltic countries, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. At the heart of his pastoral care was the spiritual and apostolic development of Marian communities in those changing times.<\/p>\n

It was his privilege and responsibility also to prepare the solemn beatification ceremony of Blessed George Matulaitis, the first Marian to be raised to the honors of the altar during a special year for the Lithuanian people as they celebrated the 600th\u00a0Anniversary of Christianity in their country. Finally, Fr.\u00a0Petraitis prepared and presided over the historical 1993\u00a0General Chapter of the Marian Fathers which gathered the representatives of the entire Marian Congregation for the first time since\u00a01939.<\/p>\n

He will be remembered as a priest who always manifested a deep faith in God’s goodness and Providence, as well as, a man of courage, who never tired to encourage the members of his community when facing difficulties with his famous Italian expression\u00a0corragio e avanti<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 “have courage and go forward.”<\/p>\n

On Friday early evening a wake service of prayers and remembrances took place at the Marian Fathers’ Provincial Headquarter at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA. On Saturday, June 16, a funeral Mass is to be offered by the Marian Community with the Most Rev. Joseph G. Roesch, MIC, Vicar General from Rome, as the principal celebrant and Very Rev. Kazimierz Chwalek, MIC, Provincial Superior as homilist.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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