Father Gerald (Jerry) Pleva, who served the last assignment of his long life as a Marianist brother and priest at St. Anthony Church on Maui, died Sept. 25, in San Antonio, Texas. He was 74 with 55 years of religious profession.
Father Pleva was a teacher, counselor, campus minister and pastor. He held three master’s degrees and touched thousands of lives during his extensive and varied career.
He was named associate pastor at St. Anthony Parish in Wailuku in 2007, and there celebrated his golden jubilee as a Marianist.
Marianist Brother Jim Vorndran, who lived with Father Pleva on Maui, described the service the priest brought to that community.
“I think one of the most important statements in Scripture about Mary is ‘The mother of Jesus was there.’ That was Jerry, available for anyone at any time,” he said. “He was especially in his element ministering in the hospital emergency room or intensive care unit. He was truly there.”
Diagnosed with inoperable cancer in late 2010, Father Pleva moved from Maui to the Marianist Residence in San Antonio in 2011.
Father Pleva was born on June 15, 1939, in Milwaukee. He joined the Marianists, with whom he had become acquainted at Milwaukee’s Don Bosco High School, and made his first vows on Sept. 8, 1958, at Marynook Novitiate in Galesville, Wis. He professed his perpetual vows on Aug. 19, 1962, in St. Louis, Mo.
As a young Marianist brother, he first taught religion, English and history at high schools in St. Louis. By 1972, he had earned three master’s degrees: in theology, in counseling and in religious education.
During a subsequent two-year term as a high school teacher and guidance counselor in San Antonio, he asked to serve the Society of Mary as a priest. He entered the Marianist seminary in Toronto and was ordained on May 28, 1977, in Milwaukee.
After 12 years as a high school chaplain, teacher and community director, he took a year’s sabbatical in Bangalore, India, where he met his hero, Mother Teresa of Calcutta. “I met with her personally for more than an hour — an experience I will never forget,” Father Pleva said later.
After India, he served as an associate pastor in Texas before going to Maui.
Father Pleva’s funeral was Sept. 30 in San Antonio. He was buried in the Marianist cemetery at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.
