Fr. Theophilus Palukaitis/Fr. Theo Palis
From Lithuania. Ordained in Germany in 1945. Arrived in the U.S. from a concentration camp after WWII. Spent summer 1951 in the Diocese of Grand Rapids. By 1952 was assigned in the Archdiocese of Portland OR, then by 1953 he was active in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, followed by the Diocese of Oakland CA. Changed his name to Fr. Theo Palis. Pastor for 31 years of of Our Lady Queen of the World in Bay Point CA. Retired in 2006. Died in 2013 in Oakland. Named publicly as accused in the MI Attorney General’s 12/15/2025 Report, as Fr. Theophilus Palukaitis. In 1995 a woman reported to the Grand Rapids Diocese that when she was age 8 in summer 1951, she was molested by Palukaitis. She said she told her mother, who called her a liar. She said that later in life her mother told her that “numerous girls were molested by this man but the parents kept it quiet.”
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