Father Michael W. Twardzik, a native of Pittsfield, passed away August 13 in Rochester, N.Y. He was 79 years old.
Father Twardzik was the son of the late Michael W. Twardzik and Helen V. Packlick. The family were parishioners at Holy Family Parish in Pittsfield. He attended St. Joseph High School in Pittsfield. Upon graduation, he began his seminary training at St. Mary Orchard Lake in Michigan. He went on to study theology at the American College in Louvain, Belgium.
On July 12, 1970, he was ordained a priest at his home church, Holy Family in Pittsfield. He served as assistant pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish in Indian Orchard; St. John Cantius Parish in Northampton, Mass.; and St. Mary Parish, also in Northampton. Father Twardzik also served as administrator of St. Mary, Haydenville; pastor at St. Stanislaus, South Deerfield; and pastor at St. Francis, Notre Dame, and Holy Family in North Adams.
In addition to his parish assignments, Father Twardzik served as director of the Smith College Newman Apostolate and assistant chaplain at the Newman Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He was also master of ceremonies to Bishop Joseph F. Maguire.
Among his other diocesan appointments, he was episcopal vicar for the Franklin-Hampshire Vicariate, a member of the Presbyteral Council, a member of the Diocesan Building Commission, a member of the Priests’ Senate, and director of the Office of Peace and Justice.
In 1973 he joined the faculty at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, Orchard Lake, Mich., going on to serve as academic dean there from June 1983 through October 1987.
In October 2005, he was given a one-year sabbatical, serving during that time as a spiritual director/confessor at the Abbey of the Genesee in Piffard, N.Y. At the conclusion of his sabbatical, he requested and was given permission to continue his priestly ministry in the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y.
There he served as a parochial vicar at Holy Family Catholic Community, a four-church parish in northern Steuben and southern Livingston counties in New York State, from 2006 until his retirement in 2014. He continued to help out there as a senior priest.
Calling hours will be on Tuesday, August 20, at the Holy Family Catholic Community, Saint Joseph’s Church, 206 Fremont Street, Wayland, N.Y., from 3 to 6:30 p.m., with prayers at 6:30 p.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be on Wednesday, August 21, at 10 a.m., at Holy Family Catholic Community, Saint Mary’s Church, 40 Elizabeth Street Church, Dansville, N.Y. Burial will take place in Saint Pius Cemetery, Cohocton, N.Y., followed by a reception at Sturmer Hall.
