HARTFORD, Conn. — Leaving Vermilion County, where he served for 47 years — including the last 27 as pastor of St. Isaac Jogues Parish in Georgetown — was “very difficult,” acknowledges Father John Paninski, MS.

Father John, 81, recovering from health issues since contracting pneumonia last November, left in early April to take up residence at a retirement home of the Missionaries of LaSalette in Hartford.

“It was obedience of vows,” said Father John of following his provincial’s call back to community life.

He told The Catholic Post he will miss the “lovable family” at St. Isaac Jogues — “The people were excellent to me,” he recalled — as well as the close-knit group of priests in the Danville area.

The missing works both ways. Members of St. Isaac Jogues Parish shared their gratitude and well wishes during an afternoon open house in Father John’s honor on April 7. In addition, St. Mary’s Parish in Westville “had a nice party for me on Palm Sunday.”

“God has been very good to me,” said Father John, who served as chaplain at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Danville for 20 years early in his priesthood.

MISSIONARY OF LA SALETTE
A native of Syracuse, N.Y., Father John said he had a desire to be a priest since the second grade. Felician Sisters who taught him in school encouraged his vocation, and he also had the support of his parents and grandparents, who lived with him.

He was led to the Missionaries of LaSalette by an assistant pastor in his parish, whose brother was the superior of the community then based in Olivet, just south of Danville.

“The message of Our Lady of LaSalette for reconciliation and penance and prayer really resonated with me,” Father John told The Catholic Post in an interview on the occasion of his golden jubilee two years ago.

He entered the postulancy in 1957 at Olivet and made his first profession the following year. Father John studied philosophy and theology at St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle and was ordained in Joliet on May 27, 1961.

After a brief time as parochial vicar of a parish in Red Lake, Ontario, Canada, he returned to Olivet. For two years, he served as prefect of discipline at the community’s school, and then started his long tenure as chaplain of the VA hospital in Danville.

There was no parish in Georgetown when the Missionaries of LaSalette came to Olivet in 1942, so they established St. Isaac Jogues to serve area Catholics. Father John became pastor there in 1986.

He describes the faith community as consisting of about 75 families, most of them older and “very generous” to their parish. “We were not in a hole in any way,” he said.

Father John recalled that lightning struck the church a few years ago and “broke my heart.” A renovation followed, including the installation of new ceiling tile and carpeting in the church as well as new floors in the basement.

Now, it’s Father John’s turn to heal. He is taking physical therapy to regain strength in his legs and hopes to drive a car again soon.

Those who would like to send him cards of gratitude and encouragement may do so in care of the Missionaries of LaSalette, 85 New Park Ave., Hartford, CT 06106-2184.