Bishop John Walter Yanta passed away on August 6 in San Antonio, Texas (USA), at the age of 91.
He came from a family of Silesian immigrants who came to Texas in the nineteenth century. He had reached age 91.
How Did Bishop John Walter Yanta Die?
Bishop John Walter Yanta, 90, died early on Saturday, according to a statement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Amarillo.
He was the fifth of eight children when he was born on October 2, 1931, in Runge, Texas. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers in Texas in the middle of the nineteenth century. Between 1854 and 1855, his ancestors left their native land.
They included Filip Dziuk and Mary Ann Moczygba, Kasper Kasprzyk and Maria Zieliska, Jan Polok and Anna Gorzel, and Szymon Janta and Josefa Reyman. His parents were John Andrew Yanta and Maria Magdalena Polok, and his grandparents were Valentine Yanta and Albertina Kasprzyk, Laurence Polok and Katherine Dziuk.
The statement states that Bishop Yanta presided over the diocese from 1997 until 2008.
Funeral plans are still being made, according to what officials wrote. A follow-up message will be sent once the information is made available to the public.
John Walter Yanta wiki
On March 17, 1956, he received his priestly ordination and was received into the Archdiocese of San Antonio (Texas, USA). He was made an auxiliary bishop of San Antonio with the titular see of Naratcata on October 27, 1994, by Pope John Paul II.
Patrick Fernández Flores, the archbishop of San Antonio, ordained him to the episcopate. In Virgin Mary, Texas, the oldest Polish parish in the United States, John Walter Yanta was consecrated a bishop on December 30, 1994. On January 21, 1997, he was named ordinary of the Diocese of Amarillo. On January 3, 2008, he retired and relocated back to San Antonio.
Bishop John Walter Yanta journey
He was a priest in the Archdiocese of San Antonio and one of the founders of the Polish-American Priests Association. He served as the organization’s secretary for many years before becoming its president in 1990. In 1987, he helped plan John Paul II’s trip to San Antonio.
Bishop Yanta was aware of his Silesian ancestry, but he was unaware of the specifics. He travelled to Poland on a plane as early as the 1970s, and in 1973 he planned the flight of 54 people from Texas to Poland. They went to sites that their ancestors left in the nineteenth century, among other things. Since then, one of Fr. Yanty’s top priorities has been to send Polish priests and nuns to Texas in order to preserve and promote Silesian customs and language among the subsequent Silesian Texans, according to what we read on the website slask-texas.org.
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Bishop Yanta was a co-founder and honorary president of the Father Leopold Moczygemba Foundation when it was created at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Foundation’s mission is to fund efforts that connect Silesia and Texas through arranging travel to and from Poland, documenting the history and ancestry of Silesian emigration, and bringing together Silesian families’ offspring on both sides of the Atlantic. Bishop Yanta visited Poland’s Silesia in the twenty-first century as well. He was a guest, among other things, at the St. Anna fair on Saint Anne’s Mountain (2009).
He received the Officer’s and Commander’s Cross of the Polish Republic’s Order of Merit.
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