Obituary: Msgr. Robert C. Fichtner, 84

MASSACHUSETTS
The Pilot

ON: 6/14/2013, BY PILOT STAFF

Msgr. Robert C. Fichtner passed away June 7 at his residence in Waltham, after a period of declining health. He was 84 years old.

Born on Feb. 8, 1929, in Brighton, he was the third of four children of Carl R. and Rose (Conlin) Fichtner. He was the brother of Mary E. O’Connell of Waltham, and the late Paul E. Fichtner of Waltham and the late Lt. Edward J. Fichtner, U.S. Air Force, who died in the Korean War.

He was educated at Our Lady of the Presentation Grammar School in Brighton, St. Joseph Academy in Wellesley Hills and graduated from St. Sebastian Country Day School, Newton, in 1947.

In the fall of 1947 he entered St. John’s Seminary in Brighton to begin his studies for the priesthood and was ordained Feb. 2, 1955 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross by Archbishop Richard Cushing.

Msgr. Fichtner’s first assignment in the priesthood was at St. Peter Parish in Plymouth. He was later assigned to the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. to study Canon Law (1958).

When he returned to the archdiocese, he was assigned as assistant pastor to St. Michael Parish, Lowell (1958-1959). He was sent to Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in South Boston (1959-1967), followed by an assignment to Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton, where he spent 14 years (1967-1981).

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