Ecumenical & Interfaith Leader
Fr. Thomas Stransky, C.S.P. (1930 – 2019)

Paulist Fr. Thomas Francis Stransky was born on Sept. 3, 1930.

Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he made his first promises to the Paulist Fathers community on Sept. 8, 1951. He ordained a priest on May 11, 1957.

Fr. Stransky served as rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, a center of theological scholarship and learning.

As a young staff member of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, he was instrumental in the writing of the 1965 Vatican II document "Nostra Aetate," the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.

Fr. Stransky served as president of the Paulist Fathers from 1970 to 1978 and then as our community's director of novices.

In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame.

Fr. Stransky entered eternal life on his 89th birthday, Sept. 3, 2019, in Totowa, NJ.  (Read his obituary,)

For photos and videos of Fr. Stransky, please visit his Pinterest board and YouTube playlist.