Father Donald Petraitis
Diocese of Norwich (Marian Fathers)
Ordained: 1964
Died: 2012
Assigned as follows:
- St. Mary’s (Putnam, CT)
- Marianapolis Preparatory School (Thompson, CT)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations against Fr. Donald Petraitis:
Fr. Donald Petraitis was ordained a priest of the Marian Fathers in 1964, and served in multiple parishes in the Diocese of Norwich. According to media reports, in the early 1960s, he was accused of sexually abusing an altar boy when he was ‘filling in’ at St. Mary’s in Putnam. The alleged victim said he told Fr. Donat Jette during confession that he was forced to have oral sex with Fr. Petraitis, and that Jette then abused him, too.
Petraitis denied the allegations. He later became the headmaster of the Marianapolis Preparatory School in Thompson and vicar general of the order. Per the 2002 Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCD), Petraitis was Provincial of the Marian’s Office in Chicago. One article refers to him as Superior of the Marians St. Kazimierz Province in the USA, and former General of the Congregation.
In 2019, Petraitis’s name was not included on the Diocese of Norwich list with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.
Petraitis died in 2012.
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