Submitted by: Dan Rich

Rev. Joseph F. Pawlicki CSC

July 31, 1915 - Dec. 13, 1999

South Bend Tribune 12/18/1999

After a protracted illness, Fr., Joseph Pawlicki, CSC, died in John Fitzgerald Memorial Hospital, Indio, Calif., on the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 13. He was born on July 31, 1915, to Frank and Anna (Jurkowski) Pawlicki in Manistee, Mich. After graduating from Manistee High School in 1933, he worked for eight years in an engineering firm in Grand Rapids before entering Holy Cross Seminary in 1941.

He pronounced his first vows on Aug. 16, 1943, at St. Joseph's Novitiate, Rolling Prairie, Ind., and his final vows on Aug. 16, 1946. Following graduation from Notre Dame in 1946 and four years of theology at Holy Cross College, Washington, D.C., he was ordained priest on June 7, 1950. Except for one year, 1952-53, when he taught at Columbia Preparatory School, Portland, Ore., Fr. Pawlicki served as an assistant in a number of parishes: Sacred Heart, New Orleans, La, 1950-52 and 1953-54; St. Helen's Mission, Georgetown, Texas, 1954-64, San Roque, Santiago, Chile, and as founding pastor of Christo Nuestro Redentor, Penalolen, Chile, 1965-1972.

In 1973, Fr. Pawlicki founded the Valley Missionary Program in the Coachella Valley, California, a work that he pursued until his death on Dec. 13. The Valley Missionary Program established Basic Christian Communities to evangelize through Encounters, the Hispanics in Coachella, Guadalajara and Mexicali in Mexico and in Phoenix, Las Angeles and Hawaii.

On Thursday, Dec. 16, there will be two Wake services at Our Lady of Soledad Church, Coachella at 6 and 8:30 p.m. PST, followed by an all night vigil and a Mass of the Resurrection on Friday, Dec. 17, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Coachella. Fr. Pawlicki is survived by his sister, Mrs. Harriet Best; and a niece, Lynette Flynn, both of Grand Rapids, Mich.

On Sunday, Dec. 19, there will be a Wake service at Moreau Seminary at 7:30 p.m. EST. The Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated on Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame, Ind. Burial will follow in the Community Cemetery, Notre Dame. Kaniewski Funeral Homes is handing arrangements.