Oldest Diocesan Priest Dies at the Age of 100

Father Raila

The oldest diocesan priest, Father Stanislaus Raila, who was 100 years old, died April 17 at Matulaitis Nursing Home in Putnam, Conn., where he had been residing.

Born in Lithuania, he studied in the Metropolitan Seminary of Kaunas, Lithuania, where he was ordained April 1, 1933. He recently marked his 75th year as a priest.

He served as an assistant in Vilkija, earned a doctorate in theology from the University of Kaunas, taught in local high schools and colleges and was spiritual director for several Lithuanian organizations.

He came to the United States in 1939 and could not return to his native land because of the outbreak of World War II. He served in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Between 1948 and 1954, he helped sponsor hundreds of displaced persons from Lithuania.

He came to the Brooklyn Diocese in 1960 and was named director of the Lithuanian Religious Aid, Inc., while serving at Holy Cross parish, Maspeth. In 1978, he was assigned to Transfiguration, Maspeth, and became incardinated as a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

In 1990, he moved into the Bishop Mugavero Residence, Douglaston, and later went to the nursing facility in Connecticut.

Bishop Paul Baltakis, OFM, was the celebrant of the funeral Mass at Transfiguration Church, Maspeth, on Tuesday, April 22.

Among the special concelebrants was Father Vytautus Volertas, who also preached the homily.

Father Volertas had known Father Raila, since Father Volertas was a child. When his parents emigrated from Lithuania to the U.S. after World War II, it was Father Raila who helped them to assimilate into the new society.

“He had a car,” Father Volertas said, which was unusual at that time among the Lithuanian community, and “he would offer rides to anyone who needed one.”

As head of Lithuanian Religious Aid, Inc., he “showed people the ropes of how to do things,” said Father Volertas said.

“He was a good friend of the family,” he added. “My parents said that he was very helpful to people.”

“He was very prayerful, very committed, and very helpful to other people,” Father Volertas said.

Father Raila was well-read, as well as an author. Father Volertas has a book Father Raila wrote in Lithuanian about what it takes to be a good priest. When Father Raila moved from Douglaston to his final home in Putnam, Father Volertas received some of this library of books in Lithuanian.

In his final years, even though he was fragile physically, Father Raila still had a “sharp mind,” Father Volertas said.

Bishop Baltakis, who is in residence at Transfiguration, knew Father Raila for 34 years. He called Father Raila “very active” in his work on behalf of Lithuanian immigrants noting that this work included publishing “underground publications” in support of Lithuania at a time the country was under Soviet domination.

Msgr. Thomas W. Groenewold, 65, pastor of St. Catherine of Sienna parish, Franklin Square, in the Rockville Centre Diocese, died March 8 after a battle with lung cancer.

Born in Woodside, he attended Blessed Sacrament School, Cypress Hills; Brooklyn Prep, Cathedral College, and Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington. He was ordained May 9, 1987.

Before entering the seminary, he taught at Christ the King H.S., Middle Village, 1965-71, and Chaminade H.S., Mineola, L.I., 1972-83.

Sister Miriam Cecil, O.S.F., a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Alleghany, NY, died April 12 at St. Elizabeth Motherhouse, Alleghany. She was 100 years old.

Born in Astoria as Mary Elizabeth Rohr, she was a member of St. Joseph’s parish.

Her ministry as a Franciscan began in 1943 as a housekeeper and cook in Jamaica, West Indies. She also took on additional duties as dietician, sacristan, maintenance person and driver as she served in convents in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and the West Indies.

She retired to the motherhouse in 1979.

She is survived by her sister, Katherine Taber.

Burial was in St. Bonaventure Cemetery, Alleghany.

Sister Frances Marie Casteran, C.S.J., 91, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood, since 1979 after her transfer from Visitation Monastery in Brooklyn, died April 10 in Maria Regina Residence, Brentwood.

In 1943, she received her degree from Hunter College where she was a pre-med major. She then worked in the Army base in Brooklyn as a junior engineer, testing data computers for submarine gunnery and later in public relations in planning and implementing surveys, workshops and in-service courses for management personnel.

At the age of 30, she entered the Visitation Monastery in Bay Ridge where she served for 22 years. She updated her theology receiving a certificate in theological studies from Loyola University, Chicago; did graduate work in theology at Wheeling College, Fordham University, received her M.S. in pastoral counseling from Iona College and did post-graduate work in psychology at St. John’s University.

She served as Superior of the community at Visitation and she continued liturgical renewal within the Monastery and continued sending some of her sisters to study in Brentwood College where they were updated.

After prayerful discernment, she transferred to the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood, where she spent herself in the field of pastoral ministry becoming a certified chaplain at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Astoria, 1982-97 and St. Patrick’s, Bay Shore, 1980-82. In 2001, she retired to Maria Regina Residence.

Sister Judith Anne Enterlin, C.S.J., formerly Sister Myra Grace, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, for 43 years, died April 9, in Maria Regina Residence, Brentwood.

She taught at St. Clare, Rosedale, and SS. Cyril and Methodius, Deer Park, 1970-77. She worked in parish ministry in SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1977-82, and later in St. Martha, Uniondale, 1982-1986; and St. Raphael, East Meadow, 1986-2008.

She also served the congregation as Director of Initial Formation, 2000-2006.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated April 12 at St. Raphael’s Church.

She is survived by her two brothers, Martin and David, and her sister, Joanne.

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