Our Bishop Ordinary, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Casimir J. Grotnik passed away today. I ask all of you, my readers and friends, to please pray for the repose of his soul and to pray for his wife and family.
Bishop Grotnik ordained me. He was a wonderful, insightful, and practical man. He was also a great intellectual and writer. I will miss his good humor and his guidance very much. He had a certain way of looking into your eyes and through them to your soul. He saw into you with a certainty founded in faith. He loved his people and his clergy.
As deacon, I was his hands, eyes, and ears in our Parish. We were connected by grace and by filial love and admiration.
The last time I saw him was at the Central Diocese School of Christian Living conference. He was not doing very well. He had a kidney replacement about a year ago. Recently it was found that he had cancer and hew had recurrent boughts of pneumonia. He suffered greatly, but always saw through the suffering to his faith. We have a biography of Bishop Grotnik on our Parish’s website (click here…).
Eternal rest grant onto him O Lord, and may the perpetual light shine upon him.