Father Rudolph Thomas Vorisek, CSP, a Paulist priest for 55 years, died on May 18 at the age of 82. A Mass of the Resurrection will be offered for Father Vorisek on Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, 60th Street and Columbus Avenue in New York City. Interment will follow at the Church of St. Thomas Cemetery in Oak Ridge, N.J. A Wake service will be held at the Paulist Fathers’ residence on West 59th Street in New York City on Friday, May 20 from 7-8:30 p.m.

Born in New York City on Nov. 1, 1928 to Rudolph F. and Josephine Vorisek, Father Vorisek earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C., and a master’s degree from The Catholic University of America. The future priest entered the Paulist Fathers’ novitiate on Aug. 29, 1949, and made his first promise with the community on Sept. 8, 1950. He was ordained a Paulist priest at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City on May 3, 1956.

Make a gift in memory of Fr. Vorisek After his ordination, Father Vorisek served on the staff of the Paulist Center in Boston until heading to Washington, D.C. to pursue graduate studies from 1956-57. He then served on the faculty of the Paulist minor seminary, St. Peter’s in Baltimore from 1957-68. Father Vorisek then headed to California to engage in campus ministry at the University of California at Santa Barbara (Isla Vista) from 1968-76 before joining the staff at the Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids, Mich., from 1976-84. He returned to his hometown of New York City to minister as a hospital chaplain from 1984 until his retirement in 1991. From his retirement to his death, Father Vorisek lived with his Paulist brothers at the Paulist Motherhouse in Manhattan on West 59th Street.