With great sadness, we announce that our brother, Rev. Edward S. Pietrucha, C.S.P., has entered eternal life.

He died on Friday evening, July 18, 2025, following several weeks in hospice care at the Mary Manning Walsh Home in New York City. He was 97 years old.

Fr. Pietrucha had been a member of the Paulist community for nearly 76 years and a priest for 68 years.

During his long priesthood, he served as a pastor and associate pastor in parishes around the United States as well as in Toronto, Canada, and Rome, Italy. He was noted for his extensive commitment to Hispanic ministry.

Edward Stanley Pietrucha was born in Newark, N.J., on November 17, 1927, the youngest of seven children of John and Victoria Bator Pietrucha, Polish immigrants who came to America in 1903.

He was baptized at St. Casimir Church on New Year’s Day, 1928.

He spent his youth in Irvington, NJ, where he attended Sacred Heart School.

He graduated from Newark’s West Side High in 1944 and then studied for a year at Manhattan College where he majored in accounting.

In 1946, he entered the U.S. Navy. He was a seaman in the Pacific and visited China.

During his time in the Navy, he met the Paulist Fathers at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. “They had a great center for the Armed Forces. I remember the Paulists there were very friendly and very happy,” he said.

After leaving the Navy, he returned to Manhattan College in early 1948. It was around then that he picked up a pamphlet titled “You a Paulist?”

In his 1949 application to the Paulists, he wrote, “I am interested in doing convert work among my fellow Americans. I have seen and heard of the work of the Paulist Fathers and would like to become one of them, and thereby work for Christ and souls.”

After spending an academic year in the Paulist preparatory seminary, he entered the Paulist novitiate on August 24, 1950.

He made his first promises to the Paulist community on September 8, 1951, and his final promises on September 8, 1954.

He earned his undergraduate degree at St. Paul’s College, our former major seminary in Washington, D.C., which was then a degree-granting institution.

“Where Paulists are gathered together, there’s always lots of fun,” he later said of his seminary years.

He was ordained a priest on May 11, 1957.

In his first priestly assignment, Fr. Pietrucha was an assistant pastor at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City through 1964. During these years in New York, he became one of the first Paulist Fathers to minister with a Hispanic community.

From 1964 to 1968, he was Director of Instructional Programs at the Paulist Center in Boston.

Fr. Pietrucha then served for some 30 years as a parish priest.

He was pastor of St. Austin Church in Austin, TX, from 1968 to 1974; associate pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Toronto, Canada, from 1975 to 1977; pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Greeley, CO, from 1977 to 1984; rector of the Church of Santa Susanna (the American parish) in Rome, Italy, from 1984 to 1988; and associate pastor of St. Cyril of Alexandria in Tucson, AZ, from 1989 to 1999.

“I think most of my priesthood was working with immigrants. Of course, I had to learn different languages: Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian,” Fr. Pietrucha recalled during a 2017 interview to mark the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

When asked what advice he would give to a young priest beginning in Hispanic ministry, he advised, “First, get to know the people, especially get to know a few young couples and build a team around them. That worked very well in Tucson and other places. Especially as a young priest, you have to become friends with married couples and young families – that helps you a lot in ministry.”

Fr. Pietrucha entered senior ministry in 1999. He lived and served in Tucson, AZ, for 16 years before moving in 2015 to the Paulist Motherhouse in New York City.

On Holy Saturdays in New York, he presided at the blessing of the Easter food at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle.

Fr. Pietrucha moved to the Mary Manning Walsh Home in Manhattan in 2023.

He was the last member of his immediate family.

Fr. Pietrucha was half of the only current uncle-nephew combination in the Paulist Fathers. Rev. Paul Rospond, C.S.P., is his nephew.

In addition to his brother Paulists, he also is survived by several other nephews and nieces and their families, as well as parishioners and friends at the many parishes where he served.

Our prayer for our brother, Ed:

May the angels lead you into paradise,
may the martyrs come to welcome you,
and take you to the holy city,
the new and eternal Jerusalem.

Arrangements

A wake for Rev. Edward S. Pietrucha, C.S.P., will be held from 6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, July 23, 2025, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Columbus Avenue at West 60th Street, in New York City. There will be a Vigil Service at 7:30 p.m.

Fr. Pietrucha’s Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday morning, July 24, 2025, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. There will be a live broadcast on the parish’s YouTube channel beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern with remarks from family members. The Mass will begin at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.

The principal celebrant of the Mass will be Very Rev. René Constanza, C.S.P., president of the Paulist Fathers. The homily will be preached by Rev. Paul Rospond, C.S.P., Fr. Pietrucha’s nephew.

Fr. Pietrucha’s cremated remains will be interred at St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery in Oak Ridge, NJ, a date not yet determined.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Paulist Fathers for the care of senior priests.

 

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