Redemptorist Father Raymond Weithman, who worked in the foreign missions and with the mission-preaching bands in the U.S., died of an aneurism Friday, Oct. 16, at the Massachusetts home of a longtime family friend. He was 80 years old and had suffered from poor health for many years.
A Mass of Christian Burial was offered on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Mount St. Alphonsus in Esopus, NY, with a fellow missionary to Brazil, Father John Devin, giving the homily and Baltimore Provincial Consultor Father Edmund Faliskie as main celebrant. Burial was at the Redemptorist cemetery in Esopus, where a great-uncle of Father Weithman, Redemptorist Bishop William McCarty of Rapid City, SD, also is buried.
A Brooklyn native, Father Weithman was born June 15, 1929, the son of Raymond and Catherine Dolan Weithman. As a child, he sang in the parish choir and later served at the altar. During his teenage years, he studied at St. Mary’s Seminary in North East, PA, and, after his novitiate year in Ilchester, MD, he made his first profession of vows in 1951. He continued his preparation for the priesthood at Mount St. Alphonsus in Esopus, making his final profession of vows in 1954 and being ordained a priest on June 17, 1956.
Father Robert Lennon, a year behind Father Weithman in the seminary, recalled the latter’s wonderful singing voice. “He sang everything, but especially the Ave Maria and the Panis Angelicus,” he said. Father Arthur Wendel also remembered those hymns as being special to Father Weithman and sang them at the funeral Mass.
Like many of his classmates, Father Weithman was sent to the foreign missions after ordination. He was assigned to the Campo Grande region of Brazil, where his vocal gift and his appreciation for pitch and tone helped him to become fluent in Portuguese. A classmate and fellow missionary, Father Charles Brinkmann, said that “Brazil was a tremendous part of his career and he loved it there.”
Rev. Raymond Weithman, C.Ss.R.
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