User:Milzinas/Juozas Kasakaitis

Father Juozas Kasakaitis (1885 - 1930) was the first pastor of Saint George Roman Catholic Lithuanian Church, located in Rochester, New York.

At the April 14, 1907 meeting a committee to oversee the construction of a church and parish hall was named: Vladas Stankevičius-Stanley, president, and Martynas Stučka, Adomas Norkevičius and Juozas Rickis as building committee members. Their proposal to buy the vacant land between Hudson, Weeger, and Dudley Streets n Rochester, New York was readily accepted. Each person at the meeting pledged an initial 25 dollar donation. In further fund raising, volunteers, led by Pranė Mociejūnienė, collected nickels and dimes from parishioners on payday.

At the March 8, 1908, parish meeting $25,000 dollars were allocated to build a stone church. When Father Juozas Kasakaitis graduated in the spring of 1909 from St. Bernard’s Seminary, he was immediately assigned as the first pastor of Saint George Roman Catholic Lithuanian Church. Although at first there were many stumbling blocks because of the hard financial situation of the time, Bishop Thomas Hickey dedicated the new church-hall-school building, costing about $18,000, on December 11, 1910. The Lithuanians in n Rochester, New York, finally, had a cultural and spiritual home.

The success of the building project was in most part due to the energy of Father Juozas Kasakaitis, who became the first pastor of St. George Church after finishing his studies at Saint Bernard’s Seminary in the spring of 1910. He was well received because during his days as a student at seminary, he preached in Lithuanian during Mass and helped many parishioners with understanding and translating their needed documents.

In 1925 a two story rectory was finished. Until then, Father Kasakaitis had resided at the house of Petras and Emilija Norkeliūnas. By January of 1927, it became clear to all members that the parish was ready to build a church which would be separate from the hall and school. The selected building committee consisted of Petras Pikūnas, Vincas Butrimas, and Antanas Žiemys.

Sadly, in 1930, Father Kasakaitis succumbed to cancer at a very early age of 45. He had been a very energetic, active, Lithuanian priest, beloved by the whole parish and mentioned only with great esteem. When Pastor Juozas Kasakaitis died in 1930, the new Pastor, Jonas Bakšys, took on the building project of the new church with unrivaled energy. Finally, on August 11, 1935, the new church, built to seat 400 members, was dedicated with great celebrations by Archbishop Edward Mooney and Bishop Teofilius Matulionis, who later was to become a martyr in a Siberian Concentration Camp. The old church was converted to a parish hall and opened with a concert and play on November 17, 1935.