The Rev. Joseph A. Seiter, C.S.Sp., who is living in retirement at Holy Spirit Retirement Community in Bethel Park, Pa., will return to Conway for a golden jubilee celebration of his ordination to the priesthood.
A concelebrated Mass of Thanksgiving will be offered at St. Joseph Church at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 16. His family, relatives, and friends will honor him with a buffet reception in the parish hall following the Mass.
Father Seiter entered the Junior Seminary of the Holy Spirit Fathers at Cornwell Heights, Pa., in 1952 after attending St. Joseph Grade and High Schools in Conway. He completed his philosophical and theological studies at St. Mary’s Seminary, in Norwalk, Conn., and was ordained a priest there June 6, 1962. After completion of his priestly studies, Father Seiter was assigned to mission work entrusted to his society in their mission fields in Tanzania, East Africa, until 1983.
Upon his return from Africa, he was assigned to parish and later hospital chaplaincy work in Texas and California. From 1995 until his retirement in 2009, he worked in parishes in California and Arkansas.
Father Seiter is a son of the late Charlie and Mary Enderlin Seiter of Conway. He has two sisters, Barbara Ketcheside of Conway and Martha McNeil of North Little Rock, and two brothers, Charles Seiter of Dallas, Texas, and Louis Seiter of Mobile, Ala., who will join in the celebration.