Daniel Edward Pilarczyk (August 12, 1934 – March 22, 2020) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
[3] He remained in Rome for his postgraduate studies, and earned a Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Urban College in 1961.
[1] Upon his return to the United States, he became assistant chancellor of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and a curate at St. Louis Church.
In 2003, Pilarczyk pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor counts of failing to report felonies and admitted facts that constituted guilt; the archdiocese was found guilty of failing to report its crimes, and the judge said that church leaders had placed self-preservation ahead of their moral duty to minister to the victims.
[5] In October 2008, Bishop Dennis Marion Schnurr of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, was named by Pope Benedict XVI as Pilarczyk's coadjutor archbishop.
[6] This means Schnurr served as the auxiliary bishop and chief vicar general to Pilarczyk, but unlike other auxiliary bishops that had served, he had the right as coadjutor to immediately succeed him as archbishop when Pilarczyk retired.
Pilarczyk continued to be involved in the Greater Cincinnati community, specifically with the growth of the archdiocese in multiple counties.
[7][8] His funeral mass, which was streamed online and closed to public attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[9] was held in St. Peter in Chains Cathedral on March 27, 2020.