Reverend Monsignor John DiStefano, 84, of Port Arthur passed away March 15, 2011, at Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth, Beaumont. He was born in Port Arthur on April 5, 1926, to Joseph DiStefano and Mary Pecorino DiStefano, and served southeast Texas his entire life.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, March 19, 2011, at St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica, 700 Jefferson, Beaumont, under the direction of Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont. His interment will follow in Greenlawn Memorial Park, Port Arthur. The reception of his body into St. Anthony will be 4:00 p.m., Friday, March 18, 2011, followed by a Rosary offered by the Beaumont Serra Club at 6:30 p.m. and a wake service at 7:00 p.m. all in the Cathedral Basilica.

Msgr. DiStefano was a graduate of St. Mary High School, Port Arthur. He attended St. Mary Seminary in La Porte, and was ordained May 22, 1952, for the Diocese of Galveston.  After serving parishes in the Houston area, he joined the newly formed Diocese of Beaumont.  Among his numerous duties, he served as pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Groves and St. Pius X Catholic Church in Beaumont.

Msgr. DiStefano was a priest for almost sixty years and although he retired in 1990, he continued to serve the people of southeast Texas as a chaplain for the Beaumont Serra Club and in relief of parish priests when called upon. 

Survivors include his sisters, Frances Cascio of Port Arthur, Elizabeth Vardeman of Orange, Lucille Piazza of Port Arthur and Phyliss Smith of Groves; and brothers, Sam DiStefano of Nederland, Louis DiStefano of Groves and Fred DiStefano of Silsbee.

The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

We need them in life's early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek it while tasting life's woes.

When we come to this world we are sinful,
The greatest as well as the least.
And the hands that make us pure as angels
Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness
Their dignity stands alone.

For there in the stillness of morning
Ere the sun has emerged from the east,
There God rests between the pure fingers
Of the beautiful hands of a priest.

When we are tempted and wander
To pathways of shame and sin
'Tis the hand of a priest that absolve us.
Not once but again and again.

And when we are taking life's partner
Other hands may prepare us a feast
But the hands that will bless and unite us,
Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress,
What can a poor sinner do better
Than to ask Him who chose them to bless.

When the death dews on our lids are falling,
May our courage and strength be increased
By seeing raised o'er us in blessing
The beautiful hands of a priest.